Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor

Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor

Parks Directory of the United States / National Heritage Areas

Address: Canal Corridor Association
200 W 8th St
Lockport, IL 60441
Phone: 815-588-1100;
Fax: 815-588-1101;
Web: www.canalcor.org
Established: Designated on August 24, 1984, as the nation's first national heritage corridor.
Location: A 100-mile-long cultural park between Chicago and Peru in northeastern Illinois.
Special Features: The Illinois and Michigan Canal, completed in 1848, connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River watershed along a longstanding Indian portage route. The 97-mile canal extended from the Chicago River near Lake Michigan to the Illinois River at Peru, Illinois. It rapidly transformed Chicago from a small settlement to a critical transportation hub between the East and the developing Midwest. The towpath trail along the canal is a state park that runs through a rural and wooded landscape, linking a number of towns laid out by the original canal commission.

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See other parks in Illinois.