The Illinois River ( mia, Inoka Siipiiwi) is a principal

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

and is approximately long. Located in the U.S. state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

, it has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins at the confluence of the

Des Plaines Des Plaines is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 60,675. The city is a suburb of Chicago and is located just north of O'Hare International Airport. It is situated on and is named after th ...

and Kankakee rivers in the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hin ...

, and it generally flows to the southwest across Illinois, until it empties into the Mississippi near Grafton, Illinois. Its drainage basin extends into southeastern

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, northwestern

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

, and a very small area of southwestern

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

in addition to central Illinois. Along it's shores are several ports, including

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Ce ...

. The river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route connecting the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

with the Mississippi. The French colonial settlements along these rivers formed the heart of the area known as the Illinois Country in the 17th and 18th centuries. After the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal and the

Hennepin Canal The Hennepin Canal State Trail, also just called the Hennepin Canal, is an abandoned waterway in northwest Illinois, between the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the Illinois River near Hennepin. The entire canal is listed on the National R ...

in the 19th century, the role of the river as link between

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

and the Mississippi was extended into the era of modern industrial shipping. The Illinois now forms the basis for the Illinois Waterway, extending capabilities for navigation and commercial shipping.

Hydrography

Peoria Aerial - Facing West (42058196825)

The Illinois River is formed by the confluence of the

Kankakee River The Kankakee River is a tributary of the Illinois River, approximately long, in the Central Corn Belt Plains of northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois in the United States. At one time, the river drained one of the largest wetlands in ...

and the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River () is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American H ...

in eastern Grundy County, approximately southwest of Joliet. This river flows west across northern Illinois, passing Morris and

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the c ...

, where it is joined by the Mazon River and Fox River respectively. At LaSalle, the Illinois River is joined by the Vermilion River, and then it flows west past

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, and Spring Valley. In southeastern

Bureau County Bureau County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 34,978. Its county seat is Princeton. Bureau County is part of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, and the Henn ...

it turns south at an area known as the "Great Bend", flowing southwest across western Illinois, past Lacon, Henry and downtown Peoria, the chief city on the river. South of Peoria, the Illinois River goes by

East Peoria East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and Creve Coeur and then Pekin in Tazewell County. It is then joined by the Mackinaw River and then passes through the Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge. Across from

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

, the Illinois is joined by the

Spoon River The Spoon River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the Illinois River in west-central Illinois in the United States. The river drains largely ...

coming from Fulton County and across from

Browning Browning may refer to: Arts and entertainment * The Browning, an American electronicore band * ''Browning'', a set of variations by the composer William Byrd Places * Browning, Georgia, USA * Browning, Illinois, USA * Browning, Missouri, ...

, it is joined by the Sangamon River, which passes through the state capital, Springfield, Illinois. The La Moine River flows into it approximately southwest of Beardstown, which is south of Peoria and Pekin and northwest of Lincoln and Springfield. Near the confluence of the Illinois with the La Moine River, it turns south, flowing roughly parallel to the Mississippi across western Illinois. Macoupin Creek joins the Illinois on the border between Greene and

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label= Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west France. It is the ...

counties, approximately upstream from the confluence with the

. For the last of its course, the Illinois is separated from the Mississippi River by only about , by a peninsula of land that makes up Calhoun County. The Illinois joins the Mississippi near Grafton, approximately northwest of downtown St. Louis and about upstream from the confluence of the Missouri River and the Mississippi.

Geology

South of Hennepin, the Illinois River is following the ancient channel of the Mississippi River. The Illinoian Stage, about 300,000 to 132,000 years ago, blocked the Mississippi near Rock Island, diverting it into its present channel. After the glacier melted, the Illinois River flowed into the ancient channel. The

roughly follows the ancient channel of the Mississippi upstream of Rock Island. The modern channel of the Illinois River was shaped in a matter of days by the

Kankakee Torrent The Kankakee Torrent was a catastrophic flood that occurred about 19,000 calibrated years agoCurry, B.B., Hajic, E.R., Clark, J.A., Befus, K.M., Carrell, J.E. and Brown, S.E., 2014. "The Kankakee Torrent and other large meltwater flooding e ...

. During the melting of the Wisconsin Glacier about 10,000 years ago, a lake formed in present-day Indiana, comparable to one of the modern

. The lake formed behind the terminal moraine of a substage of that glacier. Melting ice to the north eventually raised the level of the lake so that it overflowed the moraine. The dam burst, and the entire volume of the lake was released in a very short time, perhaps a few days. Because of the manner of its formation, the Illinois River runs through a deep canyon with many rock formations. It has an "underutilized channel", one far larger than would be needed to contain any conceivable flow in modern times.

Ecology

In the early 2000s, the Illinois River had high levels of pollution due largely to water runoff contaminated by chicken manure. In 2006, the state of

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

began the process of suing eight firms, including Tyson Foods Inc. because the chicken waste spread on fields near the river contains chemicals that were injurious to the ecosystem, hence jeopardizing the region's tourist industry. One lawyer involved in the prosecution said: "They're not fertilizing, they're dumping." By 2009, the river's condition was described as being visibly better, following the removal of nearly 290,000 tons of chicken waste from the catchment in the intervening four years. The Oklahoma lawsuit named 11 companies, including: Cal-Maine Foods, Inc.; Tyson Poultry Inc.; Tyson Chicken Inc.; Cobb-Vantress Inc. (another subsidiary of Tyson);

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in te ...

Turkey Production L.L.C.; George's Inc.; George's Farms Inc.; Peterson Farms Inc. and

Simmons Foods Simmons Foods and its affiliates process and supply poultry, pet, and animal food. It supplies retail products and wholesale products to other manufacturers, including manufacturing wet pet food for different brands. Operations are based in Arkans ...

Inc.

History

The Illinois River valley has long been an important transportation route for civilizations. The portages between the

and

Chicago River The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop). Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons fo ...

s and the Kankakee and St. Joseph rivers allowed Native Americans, Europeans, and later Americans access between the

and the Mississippi basin. The first European presence in the area was the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

mission founded in 1675 by Father

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette S.J. (June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Sainte Marie, and later founded Saint Ign ...

on the banks of the Illinois across from Starved Rock at the

Grand Village of the Illinois The Grand Village of the Illinois, also called Old Kaskaskia Village, is a site significant for being the best documented historic Native American village in the Illinois River valley. It was a large agricultural and trading village of Native A ...

, near present-day Utica. The Illinois Confederation were the primary inhabitants of the valley. Marquette wrote of the river, "We have seen nothing like this river that we enter, as regards its fertility of soil, its prairies and woods; its cattle, elk, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beaver. There are many small lakes and rivers. That on which we sailed is wide, deep, and still, for 65 leagues." In 1680,

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, ...

built the first fort in Illinois, Ft. St. Louis, at Starved Rock to facilitate the fur trade and defend the

against the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...

. Later the fort was relocated to the present site of Creve Coeur, near Peoria. The French retained a presence in the area, with small trading posts. Prior to the construction of the

Illinois & Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago P ...

, completed in 1845, Peoria was the only large settlement on the River. The river's trade flowed down to be dominated by St. Louis. After the I&M Canal saw a string of cities, such as LaSalle, Peru, and Ottawa grow along the river, extending

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

's influence into the Mississippi Valley. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the residents of the river towns were deeply involved in harvesting the river's fish, waterfowl, mussels, and ice. They were economically and culturally dependent on the river, building up industries such as tourism related to duck hunting and sport fishing, commercial fishing, musseling for the button factories, and ice cutting for early attempts at refrigeration for domestic and commercial use. With the construction of the

Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, historically known as the Chicago Drainage Canal, is a canal system that connects the Chicago River to the Des Plaines River. It reverses the direction of the Main Stem and the South Branch of the Chicago R ...

, Chicago's sewage was pushed down the river rather than into Lake Michigan. As the canal declined by the early 1900s, it was eventually replaced by the Illinois Waterway in 1933, still in use today.

Interpretation

The

Peoria Riverfront Museum The Peoria Riverfront Museum is a private museum of art, science, history, and achievement located on the riverfront in downtown Peoria, Illinois in a building owned by the County of Peoria. The Museum has five major galleries and a dozen smaller d ...

contains a gallery, "Illinois River Encounter," that offers an interpretation of the river through an aquarium tank and displays of the river's geology, ecology, social history, engineering, and commercial use. The Starved Rock Lock and Dam Visitor Center features exhibits on the Illinois River with a viewing area of the working lock in a site frequented by bald eagles.

Modern use

From 1905 to 1915, more freshwater fish were harvested from the Illinois River than from any other river in the United States except for the

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...

. The Illinois River was once a major source of mussels for the shell button industry.

Overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in t ...

, habitat loss from heavy siltation, and

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. ...

have eliminated most commercial fishing except for a small mussel harvest to provide shells to seed

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

oysters overseas. It is commercially fished downstream of the Rt. 89 bridge at Spring Valley. However, an infestation of invasive Asian Carp has crowded out many game fish in the river. The Illinois River is still an important sports fishing waterway with a good sauger fishery. The Illinois forms part of a modern waterway that connects the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

to the Mississippi River. The waterway was originally established by the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal that connected the Illinois River to the

. When the Sanitary District of Chicago later reversed the flow of the Chicago River, the pollution and sewage of the city of Chicago flowed down into the Illinois River. The Illinois and Michigan Canal has since been replaced by the Illinois Waterway, including the

. River traffic and flood control is managed by eight locks and dams operated by the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

. As of 2011, all locks and dams on this waterway are closed to visitors for security reasons, except the Starved Rock Visitor Center, which offers an excellent interpretation of the entire system. The waterway is heavily used by barges transporting bulk goods such as grain and oil. It is used in the summer and early fall by tourists in pleasure boats cruising the

Great Loop The Great Loop is a system of waterways that encompasses the eastern portion of the United States and part of Canada. It is made up of both natural and man-made waterways, including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, t ...

. The Illinois River is an important part of the Great Loop, the circumnavigation of Eastern North America by water. The City of Peoria is developing a long-term plan to reduce

combined sewer overflow A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dil ...

s to the Illinois River, as required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. During dry weather, sewage flows safely through the city's sewers to the Greater Peoria Sanitation District wastewater treatment plant. However, about 28 times a year, melting snow or rainwater can overwhelm the sewers, causing untreated sewage to overflow into the Illinois River. Peoria was required to examine the sewer overflows and prepare a long-term control plan to meet

Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...

requirements and protect the Illinois River. The city had to submit its plan by December 2008 to U.S. EPA and Illinois EPA. The issue was still under discussion as recently as 2016. The John Hartford song "Long Hot Summer Day" is written from the perspective of a barge worker on the Illinois River. It references the Illinois towns of Pekin, Beardstown, and Alton.

Cities and towns

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

* Beardstown *

* Chillicothe *

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

* Creve Coeur *

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

* Grafton * Hardin *

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

* Hennepin * Henry * Kampsville * Kingston Mines * LaSalle * Lacon *

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

* Meredosia * Morris * Naplate *

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...

* North Utica * Oglesby *

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

* Pekin * Peoria * Peoria Heights *

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

* Seneca * Spring Bay * Spring Valley * Valley City

Notes

References

Illinois Glacial History

External links

Hydrography

Geology

Ecology

History

Interpretation

Modern use

Cities and towns

See also

Notes

References

External links