The Cal-Sag Channel

And still Lemont’s digging days were not over. After almost seventy years and four generations of canal transportation, at low water levels the Sanitary Canal still flowed the wrong way on occasion. In a situation similar to the circumstances that led to construction of the Sanitary Ship Canal, polluted water from the Little Calumet River flowed into Lake Michigan and contaminated Chicago’s water supply. Once again, the solution involved reversing a river. A small “feeder canal” that ran through the Sag Valley would be replaced by a major canal that would run through the Sag Valley and connect the Sanitary Canal to the Little Calumet River at Lemont.

So, Chicago built yet another canal, the Cal-Sag Channel, so named because it connected the Little Calumet River through the Sag Valley to the Sanitary Canal at the eastern edge of Lemont. This new canal created direct access from Calumet Harbor to the Sanitary Canal, providing for shipping from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, and making Calumet Harbor Chicago’s primary port. Today 3000 barges travel the CalSag annually, as well as pleasure and other boats.

The Metropolitan Sanitary District began construction on the Cal-Sag in 1911 and completed it in 1922. The canal consumed a large portion of the Sag Valley, displacing homes and farms. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County purchased the remaining along the canal’s route, and it was allowed to revert to forest. A large wetland in the Sag Valley was improved by dams and levees to create the Saganashkee Slough on 107th Street for recreational purposes.

In the 1830s, settlers had cleared the forests that surrounded Lemont for farmland. After the 1920s the process was reversed: farmland was turned back to forests. The Palos Forest Preserves now occupy the majority of the land that was once Mount Forest Island and the Sag Valley. The rivers and streams that once ran through the area are original, but the lakes, ponds, waterfalls, and other features are manmade, created by

Lemont at 150 Years: Yesterday & Today men working in CCC camps during the great depression. The rolling hills, deep ravines, and beautiful views in the Palos Preserves makes this one of the most extensive and finest resources for recreational activities and forest preservation.

Lemont is not the only town that owes its existence to canals, but Lemont’s total contributions to Chicagoland are exceptional. Lemont can brag, however, that is the only place where all four important waterways—the Des Plaines River, the I&M Canal, the Sanitary Canal, and the Cal-Sag— run.

Transportation

On a rainy night, May 2, 1865, at 11:10 p.m., Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train passed through the station. The train had to slow to avoid a huge crowd that stood in the mud holding torches, throwing flowers on the rails to pay respect to Lincoln.

This station was also where quarry workers staged a strike in 1885 for fair wages and work hours. The governor called in the militia, and the soldiers arrived to be confronted by a large angry mob. In the conflict that followed, three men were killed and numerous people were injured, including women. Labor organizer Albert Parsons, most remembered as conspiring in the Haymarket Riots a year later, came to Lemont to speak to the strikers.

In the early 1900s, an electric train—street car or trolley—ran down Main Street through Lemont from Joliet to Chicago. It extended down Archer Avenue where passengers would transfer at Cicero and Archer to the Chicago system. It ran every half hour in the summer, made the trip from Joliet to downtown Chicago, transfer included, in about an hour and a quarter for five cents.

In the early 1900s, public transportation was more convenient than today. Barges still ran on the I&M Canal and commercial transportation on the Sanitary Canal. Two railroad lines offered twenty trains per day.

Trains had come to Lemont as early as 1858 and created early competition to the I&M Canal, especially for passenger traffic. The Chicago and Alton Railroad and the Santa Fe Railroad at one time ran both freight and passenger commuter trains. Almost immediately after the opening of the railroads the population of Lemont tripled.

The historic Chicago and Alton train station opened in 1859. Built of Lemont stone, it is one of the oldest train stations in Illinois. It was from this station that enlisted men left for the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I.

IN 1901, THE CHICAGO & JOLIET ELECTRIC RAN NORTH FROM JOLIET INTO LEMONT, ENTERING TOWN ON NEW AVENUE AND MERGING ONTO MAIN STREET BEFORE CONTINUING NORTHEAST.

As automobiles became the most popular form of passenger transportation, the need for public transportation gradually declined. Today passenger trains still run six trains per day through Lemont and freight trains run on the Santa Fe tracks. The Sanitary Canal and Cal Sag are still essential for shipping, but the I&M Canal is used only for recreational and educational purposes.