Friends of the Chicago Portage

The Chicago Portage has always been a Portal from one place and time to another.

To pass through this Portal, explore the image below with your mouse, or click on the navigation links below.

The Chicago Portage National Historic Site - Site History

Friends of the Chicago Portage

Teachers - Download a curricula that helps teachers and their students explore the early history of Chicago.
Explorers - Source documents & images

Announcing our 2012 Lecture Series: "The Year of the Treaties"

Friends of the Chicago Portage will present five free public history lectures by accomplished
local researchers, historians and storytellers about the land of the Chicago Portage and the lines
Americans drew across it, all to build a ditch that made the swampy town a great city,
and a great canal that saved the city from the swamp.

The Portage Ledger is now On-Line!

Beginning in January of 2000 Phil Vierling began publishing his "Chicago Portage Ledger". Now Carnegie Mellon University has digitized the entire 11 volume collection of Phil's original research and documentation of the stories of the Chicago Portage National Historic Site. The collection is searchable and available on-line at: http://cpl.library.cmu.edu/

Last updated: May 7, 2012