A new Web site to be featured Saturday at the Illinois State Museum allows visitors to dive into information about the Illinois & Michigan Canal Corridor, which connected the Great Lakes to the Illinois and Mississippi rivers in the 19th century.

The Web site, sponsored by Lewis University in Romeoville, expands on a book, “A Corridor In Time,” by professor John Lamb, published in 1987 by the university along with the state Office of Tourism.

“It’s a follow-up to the book that provides a brief intro to many of the same topics covered in the book but also provides links to all kinds of Web resources,” said Bonnie Styles, director of the state museum.

“The whole idea is to really expand what they could do in the hard-copy book, to provide links to all these resources for adults probably down to high-school age kids.”

The 96-mile canal between Chicago and LaSalle was completed in 1848. It allowed southerners to ship goods to the East through the rivers and Great Lakes, and easterners to find markets for their products in the South. Many historians credit it as the spark for Chicago’s economic growth.

Dennis Cremin, a historian at Lewis University, is the primary developer of the Web site. He and Styles will show visitors its various features at 10 a.m. Saturday at the museum, 502 S. Spring St. in Springfield. The site can be accessed at www.lewisu.edu/corridorintime.

Styles also will talk about other online exhibits from the museum.

Styles director wrote some material and assembled resources for the first of the seven chapters featured in the “Corridor in Time” Web site. Along with providing other information, it links visitors to information the State Museum already has compiled.

“It’s really an avenue to direct people to all kinds of online exhibits that the Illinois State Museum has put up over the years that would really enhance the understanding of the natural environment and environmental change in the corridor, and also about Native American history within the corridor,” Styles said.

The site also includes information from other historians about the French fur trade, passenger travel through the canal, the settlement of land and towns along the corridor, railroads and industries, the Sanitary and Ship Canal and the current Heritage Corridor, along with many other resources about the I&M Canal.

“Their interest is more of a focus on the cultural history and the history of the corridor itself.”



Dana Heupel can be reached at (217) 788-1518 or dana.heupel@sj-r.com.