Table of Contents By the Water 4 Chicago Facts Changing City 14 Chicago Sports 24 Things to Do 26 Timeline 29 Glossary 30 Index 31 Show What You Know 31 Websites to Visit 31 About the Author 32 Chicago WI IL IA MO MI IN KY United States Founded 1837 Land area 237 square miles 613 8 square kilometers Elevation 673 feet 205 meters above sea level Previous names Fort Dearborn Population 2 7 million Average Daytime Temperatures winter 34 degrees Fahrenheit 2 4 degrees Celsius spring 54 degrees Fahrenheit 12 4 degrees Celsius summer 78 degrees Fahrenheit 25 7 degrees Celsius fall 60 degrees Fahrenheit 15 7 degrees Celsius Ethnic diversity African-American 32 9 American Indian or Alaska Native 5 Asian 5 5 Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander 5 Hispanic or Latino 28 9 White 31 7 City Nicknames The Windy City Second City Chi-Town Chicagoland City of the Big Shoulders Hog Butcher for the World Number of Visitors Annually 40 million Chicago Illinois
By the Water See the green ribbon along the shore of Lake Michigan And the tall buildings behind it That’s Chicago Illinois Over two million seven hundred thousand people live in this city It didn’t always look like this When French explorers arrived in the 1600s it was a stinky swamp By the Chicago River the water did not drain away from the land Many wild leeks grew there It smelled so bad that the explorers called the area Chicago which came from the Miami Indians word for the smelly leeks and a striped skunk Chicago Notes Chicago is called the Windy City but it’s only the 14th windiest city in the United States 44 4 People in Chicago enjoy the beaches and parks along Lake Michigan
Thousands of boats fill Chicago’s Lake Michigan harbors These boats are often seen sailing on the lake Chicago is built at the edge of Lake Michigan Lincoln Park runs along the lake in the northern part of the city Walkers bikers and skaters use the Chicago Lakefront Trail in all kinds of weather Others take a paddle boat on the lagoon There are miles of beaches At The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum you can build a dam or walk with hundreds of live butterflies Lake Michigan by the Numbers Length 307 miles 494 kilometers Width 118 miles 190 kilometers Depth an average of 279 feet 85 meters Deepest spot 925 feet 282 meters Third largest Great Lake Sixth largest freshwater lake in the world Lake Michigan Chicago IL 5
