![]() ![]() If there were a canal cutting through two miles of prairie at this point, you could sail from Lake Erie all the way to New Orleans. When Marquette and Joliet explored the area for France in 1673, they realized the importance of the Chicago Portage: it was the saddle point dividing the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers from the Great Lakes. Toddlin' with your canoe through that toddlin' town. Native Americans would carry their canoes across this short gap when traveling between the Des Plaines River and Lake Michigan. Until 3,000 years ago, these two watersheds were connected when the Great Lakes lowered, they were separated only by the two-mile Chicago Portage. Lawrence River Divide is the boundary between two different Atlantic watersheds: water that flows south into the Gulf of Mexico, and water flowing north to the Great Lakes. But there's a lesser known one that runs between Minnesota and New Brunswick. The American continental divide you know best is the one in the Rocky Mountains and between the Atlantic and Pacific watersheds. You can hike the continental divide in downtown Chicago. ![]()
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