Chicago History for Kids: Triumphs and Tragedies of the Windy City Includes 21 Activities
INTRODUCTION MAGINE YOU COULD transport yourself back in time more than 300 years to the year 1673 Now pretend that you were standing at the cen ter of what would eventually become modern day Chicago What would you see Well first of all you'd probably be ankle deep in water Back then the future site of Chicago was mostly low lying marsh land that often flooded in the spring This drawing shows what Chicago may have looked like in the early 1780s HISTORY OF CHICAGO A T ANDREAS COMPANY 1884 86 In summer you would see tall grass prairies dotted with colorful wildflowers You would see beavers foxes wolves deer rodents and frogs But you obvi ously wouldn't see the Sears Tower the Lincoln Park Zoo the Museum of Science and Industry or Wrigley Field In fact you probably wouldn't even see any other people Even though about three million people live within Chicago's boundaries today back then the mushy swampy soil may have provided a suitable
habitat for wildlife but not for humans Various tribes of Native Americans Illinois Miami Potawatomi Fox and Kickapoo settled in the outly ing areas from time to time farming the drier lands farther from the lake and surrounding marshes In the autumn months they would most likely head west to hunt buffalo and deer The land you are imagining is about what Chicago would have looked like in 1673 That's when two Frenchmen became the first non Native Americans to visit the future city The visitors were a priest named Jacques Marquette and an explorer named Louis Jolliet They were followed by fur trappers and traders who were the first ones to consider Chicago an ideal place to settle for good IN A ROI DI I ID IID III IT In IT ID II In
A city of three million residents grew up around the once deserted Chicago River PHOTO BY TERRY EVANS REVEALING CHICAGO Ever since Chicagoans have stopped at little to overcome nature's inconveniences Unfortunately progress has also had tragic consequences for the native peoples of this region who lost their access to the land and with it their way of life Modern life has also had damaging effects on the local wildlife and environment Still Chicagoans are proud of the can do attitude that helps them build some of the world's tallest sky scrapers operate one of the world's busiest airports and run the third largest city in the United States For better or worse Chicago is always growing changing building and inventing In the following pages you can explore the city’s streets and relive Chicago's most spectacular events Imagine being the first explorer to set foot in Chica go See what it was like to dodge the flames of the Great Chicago Fire Take a ride on the world's first Ferris wheel Along the way you can build a replica of Fort Dearborn take walking tours of historic Chicago neighborhoods and write a blues
