Following the Current: A Bioregional History of the Fox River from the Pleistocene to the Present By Dr. Jackie G. VanZahms
i © Copyright by Dr. Jackie G. VanZahms 2022 All Rights Reserved
ii Authors Dr. Jackie G. VanZahms is the pen name for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy’s Fall 2022 Mod 8 History of the Environment class. This is their first book. D David Love R. Rylie-Nicole Bozarth J Jackson Halstead, Janelle Thomas, Jackie Zhang, Jeff Duan A Atharva Gawde C Christian Cline K Keira Feliciano I Irene Park E Evan Kuzukas G. Grace Daum V Val Castellanos A Avery Hedican N Nooriyah Doriwala Z Zander Tamez A Alan Hernandez H Halimat Sanusi M Maame Poku, Mia Benitez S Shanan Riley, Shawn Bailey, Simon Hoffman, Sofia Zasiebida
iii David Love David Love is a current senior at IMSA. He wrote about American Rivers classifying the Fox River as endangered. Rylie-Nicole Bozarth Rylie-Nicole is a senior at IMSA. Her interests are the environment and bioremediation. Jackson Halstead Jackson really likes space, the outdoors, and the environment. He is usually busy doing some sort of work or project but enjoys playing video games and reading in his free time. Writing for this book has been a great experience and he hopes you enjoy it! Janelle Thomas Janelle Thomas is a senior. She likes to skateboard and read. Jackie Zhang Jackie is an eighteen-year-old Chinese girl who loves enjoying K-pop, reading Chinese books, and consuming other East Asian media. She plays the violin and dances, and she is majoring in chemistry/pharmacy since her passion is in organic/medicinal chemistry. Jeff Duan In Jeff’s free time, he enjoys going to Fox Valley Mall (they have a new Korean cheese dog restaurant!) but he has never actually seen the Fox River. Atharva Gawde Atharva wrote a little bit about the Colonial French presence in the Fox River Valley. But outside of environmental history, he enjoys photography, literature, playing tennis, and learning German. Christian Cline Christian’s section in this book consists of river otters' relationships to the Fox River, and all their history surrounding the Fox River overall. He chose this because first off, otters are amazing, but also because after doing a bit of beginner’s research, Christian discovered that the history of river otters not just in the Fox River, but also the entirety of the state of Illinois is actually quite unique, so he hopes you'll enjoy his section. Keira Feliciano Keira Feliciano lives in Aurora, Illinois. She is a senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Outside of school, Keira enjoys skiing, dancing, and spending time with family and friends.
iv Irene Park Irene is a current senior at IMSA. She enjoys eating cheese. A fun fact is that she can sleep for nineteen hours at a time. Evan Kuzukas Evan was born in Chicago and has lived in the Chicagoland area all his life. He has been interested in the Radium girls since 7th grade and what they have done for worker's rights has inspired him. In his free time, he can be found reading about planes or cars, gaming, or working in the Makerlab Grace Daum Grace Daum is an IMSA senior from South Elgin, Illinois. She enjoys chemistry and biology and hopes to one day be a cardiothoracic surgeon. In her free time, Grace runs for IMSA's cross-country team, is an avid fantasy and science fiction reader, and goes fishing on the Fox River with her dad. Val Castellanos Valeria (Val) Castellanos (she/her) has lived most of her life in Illinois and is currently completing her high school education at a residential accelerated STEM institution in Aurora, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). Avery Hedican Avery Hedican lives in Gridley, Illinois. She is a senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy. When she’s not busy with school, Avery spends time with my friends and family or plays hockey. Nooriyah Doriwala Nooriyah Doriwala is a senior at IMSA who loves swimming, traveling, and watching foreign films. She enjoyed the process of writing this book and may consider being a radical environmentalist in the near future. Zander Tamez Zander is a senior at IMSA who also happens to be one of the authors for this book. He loves to skateboard/dance around and experience new things. Alan Hernandez Alan Hernandez is the author of History of Elgin's Growth along the Fox River. He's a senior at IMSA and he wants to major in CS. Some of his hobbies include listening to music and playing Volleyball. Halimat Sanusi Halimat is a current senior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. She is an avid dancer who also enjoys cooking and baking.
v Mia Benitez Mia enjoys drawing using charcoal and watching comedy or horror movies. When she is not busy, she usually spends her free time learning about astronomy. Maame Poku Maame is a senior at Illinois Math and Science Academy. She really enjoys being outside in nature, especially when she wants to watch the sunset. Shanan Riley Shanan is a senior at IMSA and thinks that History of the Environment is a pretty fun class. Although she's not sure that she has ever even seen the Fox River, she once memorized every invasive species in North America so her section can probably be trusted. Shawn Bailey Shawn Bailey has a PhD in environmental history from the University of Montana, where he researched and fished the headwaters of the Columbia River. He teaches history at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and lives in Chicago with his wife and son. Simon Hoffman Simon Hoffman is the author of a section of this book. He's currently a senior at IMSA and plans on studying physics in college. His interests are playing games and cooking. He hopes that you enjoy reading his essay! Sofia Zasiebida Sofia is a senior at IMSA. She thinks that History of the Environment is a pretty cool class. She is also a fan of restored rivers.
vi Table of Contents Foreword, by Dr. Evan Glazer .....................................................................................................................x “It’s Our Fox River” History—An Introduction, by Dr. Shawn Bailey ..........................................1 Part One—Origins ..........................................................................................................................................9 A Bioregion Transformed, by Mia Benitez .......................................................................................10 Fox River: Its Long-Forgotten Inhabitants, by Zander Tamez ..................................................15 Colonial French Presence on the Fox River: Motivations of the Fox Wars, by Atharva Gawde ...........................................................................................................................................................19 The Effects of Land Cover Change on the Fox River Area, by Keira Feliciano .....................24 Why the Fox River?, by Maame Poku.................................................................................................29 Part Two–Animals ........................................................................................................................................45 Hunting in the Fox River Bioregion, by Jackson Halstead .........................................................46 Fishing on the Fox, by Grace Daum ...................................................................................................52 Freshwater Mussels’ Essential Filtration of the Fox River, by Jackie Zhang .........................59 How River Otters Will Save Our Rivers, by Christian Cline ........................................................64 Invasive Species in the Fox River, by Shanan Riley .......................................................................69 Part Three–Industry .....................................................................................................................................75 Paper Mills on the Fox River, by Simon Hoffman ..........................................................................76 The History of Dams on the Fox River, by Halimat Sanusi ........................................................81 Fox River’s Bioregional History – Low-Head Dams, by Janelle Thomas ...............................86 Safety of the Recreational Use of the Fox River near Hydraulic Dams, by Avery Hedican ........................................................................................................................................................................90 Obsolete Technologies and Restoration on the Fox River, by Rylie-Nicole Bozarth ..........95 Glowing in Ottawa, by Evan Kuzukas ............................................................................................. 100 Part Four—Modernity .............................................................................................................................. 117 Fox River’s Endangerment Status, by David Love ...................................................................... 118 The History of Restoration Projects on the Fox River, by Sofia Zasiebida .......................... 123 Policies and Regulations on the Fox, by Irene Park ................................................................... 128 Behind the Glitz and the Glamor, by Jeff Duan ............................................................................ 134 The Growth of Elgin and the History of the Fox River, by Alan Hernandez ...................... 141 Personhood of Natural Entities: The Case of the Fox River, by Nooriyah Doriwala ....... 146 Index .............................................................................................................................................................. 153
vii List of Figures Figure 1 Fox River Watershed Map, Source: Friends of the Fox River ...................................................ix Figure 2 Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy is located in the Fox River Watershed, two miles due west of the river itself. Source: Google Maps .......................................................................................xi Figure 3 Jenni Shiavone during her float trip down the Fox River (2022). Source: Shaw Local. ............2 Figure 4 Denali, "the High One." Source: National Park Service ............................................................31 Figure 5 Quaternary Glaciation in Illinois, Source: Illinois State Geological Society ............................35 Figure 6 Evidence of Wisconsin Glaciation in Illinois. Source: Illinois State Geological Survey........36 Figure 7 Remnant of Thunderbird Effigy made by early Mound Builders. Source: Trail Run Project ............................................................................................................................................................................36 Figure 8 George Catlin, Discovery Dance, Sac and Fox (1835-1837). Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum......................................................................................................................................................37 Figure 9 Carte Geographique de La Nouvelle Franse (1612). Source: Smithsonian Museum of American History.............................................................................................................................................37 Figure 10 Combat between the Ojibwas and the Sacs and Foxes on Lake Superior. Source: Newberry Library Archives ............................................................................................................................38 Figure 11 Fox River in the early 1900s. Source: History on the Fox .......................................................38 Figure 12 Mooseheart, The School that Trains for Life, Mooseheart, Ill. Postcard (no date) .............39 Figure 13 Party poses with hunting and fishing equipment, Frank LeGros boathouse, Fox River Grove, IL, circa 1895. Source: Chicago Tribune .............................................................................................39 Figure 14 Joanna Garner fishes the Fox River near St. Charles, years after Emancipation. Source: St. Charles History Museum Archives................................................................................................................40 Figure 15 Two recreational fishermen enjoying a day on the Fox River catching largemouth bass (2022). Source: Troy Daum............................................................................................................................41 Figure 16 Freshwater mussel in the Fox River. Source: INHS Mollusk Collection ..............................41 Figure 17 Freshwater mussel used to make pearl buttons. Source: Illinois Department of Natural Resources ..........................................................................................................................................................42 Figure 18 River otter in Lake County, IL. Source: Lake County Forest Preserves................................42 Figure 19 River otter photo confirmation at a latrine site along Fox River (2017). Source: Lake County Forest Preserves .................................................................................................................................43 Figure 20 Invasive rusty crayfish. Source: Illinois Department of Natural Resources ..........................43 Figure 21 Invasive zebra mussels. Source: University of Minnesota .......................................................44 Figure 22 U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) personnel are surrounded by jumping silver carp on the Fox River in Illinois. Source: Ryan Haggerty, USFWS ..............................................................................44 Figure 23 Deer Population in North America (1450-2000) ......................................................................50 Figure 24 Locations of dams currently along the Fox River between McHenry and Dayton, Illinois. ............................................................................................................................................................................82 Figure 25 Emergency Rescues at Low Head Dams. Source: Wright Engineering.................................88 Figure 26 Coal Gas Company refuse along Fox River. Source: Vernon Derry collection ...................97 Figure 27 Parker Gristmill on the west bank of the Fox River, above Oswego, IL (approx. 1900). Source: Little White School Museum Collection ..................................................................................... 108
viii Figure 28 Fox River industry in Aurora, IL (approx. 1890s). Source: Library of Congress .............. 108 Figure 29 Hydroelectric generating Dayton Dam. Source: Friends of the Fox River ........................ 109 Figure 30 Carpentersville Dam (2020). Source: Chicago Tribune ............................................................. 109 Figure 31 Pontoon boat nearly plunges over Algonquin Dam on Fox River (2014). Source: CBS News ............................................................................................................................................................... 110 Figure 32 Danger sign at Batavia Dam (2020). Source: Chicago Tribune ................................................ 110 Figure 33 Point source pollution in the Fox River (2020). Source: Friends of the Fox River .......... 111 Figure 34 Aerial view of Ottawa, Ill., showing junction of Illinois River and Fox River, postcard (approx. 1940s) .............................................................................................................................................. 111 Figure 35 Hear Case of Dying Woman (1938). Source: Worcester Democrat & the Ledger Enterprise (Pocomoke City, MD) .................................................................................................................................. 112 Figure 36 American Rivers cleanup crew. Source: American Rivers .................................................... 113 Figure 37 Mother and daughter pair monitor water quality of the Fox River (2008). Source: Friends of the Fox River ............................................................................................................................................ 113 Figure 38 Community volunteers help to clean up pollution on the Fox River and replant native species (2006). Source: Illinois Department of Natural Resources ....................................................... 114 Figure 39 Illinois State Senator John Linebaugh, who proposed Senate Bill 1576, which would make portions of the Fox River an Illinois Scenic River Area. ........................................................................ 114 Figure 40 The Grand Victoria Casino, Elgin, IL, on the Fox River (2005). Source: WBEZ Chicago ......................................................................................................................................................................... 115 Figure 41 Elgin, Kane Co. Illinois (1880). Source: A. B. Upham. ......................................................... 115 Figure 42 Aurora, Illinois (1882). Source: Library of Congress. ............................................................ 116 Figure 43 Christopher Stone, author of Should Trees Have Standing?. Source: New York Times .... 116 Figure 44 443 E. Chicago Street in Elgin, built in 1845. Source: Historic Elgin................................. 141 Figure 45 First Elgin High School, built in 1844. Source School District U-46. ................................ 143
ix Figure 1 Fox River Watershed Map, Source: Friends of the Fox River
x Foreword Each day I drive about twenty-five miles to go to the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA). It’s where we spend time nurturing and igniting interest for high school aged students around the state interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). While those disciplines are an attractor, the academic environment stimulates curiosity and a sense of investigation in all subject areas. It’s not the type of school most people experience. Sure, we have classes, but the nature of learning is not about knowing the same knowledge, but rather an approach to thinking, exploration and creation so that students can lead their learning of different things. Students do projects within and outside of classes, and the school schedule is structured to support both pathways. IMSA is not just a school, but also a second home to almost all of us. The students reside there which is quite unusual for a public school. We offer an experience uniquely different from high schools throughout the state, providing an invaluable resource to communities that can’t create specialized curriculum for uniquely capable and motivated students in STEM. The students stay overnight, and their residential life experience engages them in socio-emotional and leadership development, not to mention learning how to do some essentials like laundry, shopping, and service in the community. When I am on my drive to IMSA, and when students go on trips off campus, we cross a bridge over the Fox River. I’ve crossed that bridge countless times. In fact, if I take a different route to school, I cross another bridge over that same river. You can drive five miles to downtown Aurora and cross even a larger bridge, along with a lot of businesses and community activity along the perimeter. You begin to realize the Fox River is important to our community, and then when you
xi look at a map you realize the Fox River is not just important to Aurora but quite a few towns over a 200-mile stretch in two different states. As a STEM school, you might think we are curious about the ecology of the river and how that has changed over time due to climate change and the influence of neighboring industries. That’s true, however there’s so much more to the study of a river – the history of the people who migrated around it, the culture that developed, and the challenges and innovations that were developed as a result of their circumstances. What a great opportunity for a course uniquely equipped for IMSA, the History of the Environment, to investigate further the many facets of the life of a river and its surroundings. It signals that the study of science is influenced by history, and society can influence the future of science. It also helps us understand that each day, when we cross bridges in our hometown, there are important stories behind the rivers that have shaped the community in which we live. I’m grateful our students have investigated and shared some of these stories as part of their learning discoveries, and hope the next edition involves additional perspectives and towns along that 200-mile stretch of the Fox River. Dr. Evan Glazer President & CEO of Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Figure 2 Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy is located in the Fox River Watershed, two miles due west of the river itself. Source: Google Maps
1 “It’s Our Fox River” History—An Introduction Shawn Bailey On September 8, 2022, ecologist, educator, and river enthusiast Jenni Schiavone slid an aluminum canoe into mild waters in south central Wisconsin, beginning a more than 200-mile float that she later described as “the best trip of my life.” She hoped to paddle the entire length of the Fox River and, in doing so, bring attention to the “It’s Our Fox River Day” conservation events scheduled for September 17 throughout the valley. At its true headwaters, near the Wisconsin town of Colgate, the Fox is little more than a swampy depression full of cattails, basking turtles, and bootsucking mud. By Brookfield, enough water flows to allow a canoe or kayak under normal conditions, through a narrow channel a spry child could hurdle across. Near Waukesha, eighteen miles west of Milwaukee, a goutier river emerges and flows south into the state of Illinois. During her journey, Schiavone crossed over this man-made border, paddled through multiple ecosystems and across private property lines, bisected golf courses and skirted a small airport, portaged around more than a dozen low-head dams and navigated through crowded towns like Aurora, Illinois, the second largest city in the state. Along the way, Schiavone witnessed the intersection of human beings and other animals within the Fox watershed, juxtaposing the healthy fauna “constantly soaring or splashing” around her on a daily basis with disconcerting sights such as a dead goose hanging in a snarl of discarded monofilament line. Less than two weeks after she started, Schiavone ended her adventure in Ottawa, Illinois, at the confluence of the Fox and the Illinois Rivers. When asked about her goal for undertaking such a trip, Schiavone later remarked: “I wanted to know this river.”1 1 Aaron Dorman, “An Algonquin conservationist finds turtles and trash along Fox River as she canoes the 200-mile length,” Northwest Herald, September 20, 2022; and Dale Bowman, “Paddling the Fox River, source to confluence: History and fun,” Chicago Sun-Times, September 18, 2018.
2 Figure 3 Jenni Shiavone during her float trip down the Fox River (2022). Source: Shaw Local. The following book is a collective effort to know the Fox River as well. While Schiavone physically paddled the entire river to improve her ecological knowledge, this collection is an attempt to understand the long history of the Fox River, from its geologic origins at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch to modern issues such as pollution or personhood rights for the river. Within this longue durée approach to the history of the Fox, each contributor designed a research project based on their own personality, background, and interests. We make no claims to completeness in our history of the Fox. Consider the following an incomplete, pointillist portrait of a river. Each of the following twenty-two essays is one set of well-paced brush strokes towards a full picture of the history of the Fox, which future scholars will hopefully help complete. This academic journey examines the history of the Fox River through a few lenses, beginning with the concepts of place and bioregional history. In his book Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, human geographer Yi-Fu Tuan defined the terms space and place with simple calculus. Ideology and cultural values, when added to blank spaces throughout the world, equal distinct humanized places. As Tuan wrote, “place is security,
3 space is freedom: we are attached to one and long for the other.” People live their lives in places, going to school, working, flirting, committing crimes, having children, creating art, and consuming goods all the while. Places are tangible and definable entities on a map. Spaces, however, are nonconcrete by nature and much more challenging to describe. For Tuan, “open space has no trodden paths and signposts. It has no fixed pattern of established human meaning; it is like a blank sheet on which meaning may be imposed.” When humans impress their own needs, wants, and desires on a space—such as a river—they create a uniquely human landscape.2 According to historian Dan Flores, the term “bioregion” is “a precise and highly useful term of art for environmental historians.” Bioregional history is deceptively easy to imagine. A bioregion is delineated by environmental and topographical borders and not political lines on a map. The Fox River is a definable bioregion—a watershed that covers 202 miles from boggy headwaters to concluding confluence, draining 2,658 square miles in the process. The fact that this bioregion cuts through two states, eight counties, and numerous towns and cities is of secondary importance to the definition of this particular place. Flores’ builds off Tuan’s equation and posits that the “narrative line of bioregional history is essentially imagining the stories of different but sequential cultures occupying the same space and creating their own succession of ‘places’ on the same piece of ground.”3 Applying this maxim to the Fox River allows historians to visualize the distinct places created by human beings in the valley over the course of 10,000 years or more. The river traversed by Black Hawk and thousands of indigenous peoples prior to and during the early nineteenth century was not the same waterway dammed by industrialists in the early twentieth century nor the 2 Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977): 3, 6, 12, 18, 54; and Tim Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction, (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2004): 12. 3 United States Geological Survey, “Fox River,” Feature ID 408636, January 15, 1980, https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/summary/408636; and Dan L. Flores, “Place: Thinking About Bioregional History,” The Natural West: Environmental History in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001): 102-103.
4 stream beloved by Schiavone and the Friends of the Fox River in the twenty-first, because the application of human culture allowed these different people and disparate groups to create distinct and dynamic places in the same geographic space. Untangling these unique perspectives is a core goal of this book. Another objective is to use the Fox River—despite its humble size and relative obscurity—as a lens for understanding broader United States history. The Fox is just one of more than 250,000 rivers in the United States. The roughly 200-miles of river that flows through Wisconsin and Illinois is less than 0.0067% of the more than 3-million miles of rivers that course throughout the country. Scholars have written hundreds of books about major rivers throughout the United States, with particular focus on the Mississippi, Missouri, Colorado, and Columbia. While historian Gregory Summers published Consuming Nature: Environmentalism in the Fox River Valley, 1850-1950, concerning a separate yet identically named waterway in northern Wisconsin, the following is the first academic history of this particular river.4 This collective chronicle of the Fox River borrows from the still emerging field microhistory and highlights some key ideologies, moments, and eras in American history. Historian Jill Lepore, focusing on the difference between biography and microhistory, contends that “microhistory is founded upon…[this] assumption: however singular a person's life may be, the value of examining it lies not in its uniqueness, but in its exemplariness, in how that individual's life serves as an allegory for broader issues affecting the culture as a whole.” Our book is essentially a microhistory focused on the Fox River. To paraphrase Charles Joyner’s conception of microhistory, this book seeks 4 Martin Doyle, The Source: How Rivers Made America and America Remade Its Rivers, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018): 10-11; and Gregory Summers, Consuming Nature: Environmentalism in the Fox River Valley, 1850-1950, (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2006).
5 answers to important historical questions along the banks of a small Midwestern river.5 The following essays trace a long scope of history, from the First Americans’ arrival at the end of the Pleistocene to the rise of indigenous empires along Midwestern waterways; from the dispossession of Native Americans as a result of Puritanical ideals and Manifest Destiny to the entrenchment of the Industrial Revolution as the dominant economic force in the region; from the commodification of Fox River species to the rise of modern environmentalism; and from continuing anthropocentric issues such as industrial pollution and littering to the possibility of partial ecological restoration and personhood for the Fox River. This book is broken into four sections. Part One “Origins” is an examination of the creation and first cultures of the Fox River bioregion. Mia Benitez, in her essay “A Bioregion Transformed,” explains the Pleistocene origins of the Fox River and the geological impact of the region on successive human cultures. Zander Tamez, in his essay “Fox River: Its Long-Forgotten Inhabitants,” explores the history of the First Americans who call the Fox River home. Atharva Gawde focuses on a momentous event in North American history—the Fox Wars—in his essay “Colonial French Presence on the Fox River.” In doing so, Gawde revises traditional scholarship on the area Richard White envisions as “the middle ground.” Keira Feliciano, in her essay “The Effects of Land Cover Change on the Fox River Area,” analyzes human impacts on the Fox River watershed’s landscapes, with a particular focus on the Potawatomi people of Illinois. In “Why the Fox River?,” Maame Afua Poku asks the question: what’s in a name? Through an analysis of the origin of the name Fox, this essay connects the history of the river with conceptions of dispossession and colonial place-naming. 5 Jill Lepore, “Historians Who Love Too Much: Reflections on Microhistory and Biography,” The Journal of American History, Vol. 88, No. 1, (June 2001): 133; and Charles Joyner, Shared Traditions: Southern History and Folk Culture, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1999): 1.
6 Part Two focuses on the biota of the Fox River, especially the interrelationships between the dominant species in the bioregion—homo sapiens—with other fauna in and long the river. Jackson Halstead and Grace Daum examine the importance of two traditional interactions in the region: hunting and fishing. In both, titled “Hunting in the Fox River Bioregion” and “Fishing on the Fox” respectively, Halstead and Daum use these sports afield to examine the historical and ecological healthiness of the river and its valley. Jackie Zhang, in “Freshwater Mussels’ Essential Filtration of the Fox River,” highlights the transformation of native bivalves from economic resource and fashion accessory to environmental necessity. In their essays, “How River Otters Will Save Our Rivers” and “Invasive Species in the Fox River,” Christian Cline and Shanan Riley look at more recent arrivals into the Fox River bioregion. Cline argues that the “history of the river otter in Illinois is a telltale sign that ecological river improvement is possible in Illinois, and…they can also help us understand how to better protect, maintain, and observe the Fox River itself.” Conversely, Riley examines the history of invasive species throughout the Fox River ecosystem and how human intervention repeatedly reengineers modern ecosystems. Part Three focuses on the development and continued impact of industry on the Fox River. The first two essays concentrate on the industrial development of the Fox River, into a version of what Richard White famously called an “organic machine.” Simon Hoffman, in his “Paper Mills on the Fox River,” explores the dominant nineteenth and early twentieth century along the river while Halimat Sanusi’s “The History of Dams on the Fox River” provides the historical context for the energy necessary to power these industrial mills and other factories on the Fox. This industrialization, in turn, impacted species throughout the region. Likewise, Janelle Thomas uses the history of Fox River dams to make predictions for the environmental future of the region in “Fox River’s Bioregional History – Low-Head Dams.” In her essay “Safety of the Recreational Use of the Fox River near Hydraulic Dams,” Avery Hedican surveys the sometimes-morbid intersection of
7 recreational swimming and the more than a dozen dams built on the Fox River. Rylie-Nicole Bozarth juxtaposes two centuries of development on the Fox with recent, but incomplete restorative ecological efforts, in her essay “Obsolete Technologies and Restoration on the Fox River.” In “Glowing in Ottawa,” Evan Kuzukas examines the intersection of radium girls, the riparian ecosystem, and the history of occupational health in the United States. Kuzukas concludes that this “battle against corporate interest, short-sighted thinking, and environmental apathy continues to cause harm to the Fox River and the residents of Ottawa.” Finally, Part Four focuses on the modern history of the Fox River. David Love, in “Fox River’s Endangerment Status,” puts historical context the American Rivers’ decision to name the Fox the seventh most endangered river in the United States more than two decades ago, while Sofia Zasiebida’s “The History of Restoration Projects on the Fox River” adds the impact of suburban sprawl to the growing litany of polluters of the Fox River. Irene Park, in her essay “Policies and Regulations on the Fox,” examines the key role of the State of Illinois in protecting the Fox and argues that “though the state government extended its powers by proposing laws that both preserved the ecology of the river and helped human corporations, the laws have primarily been intended to help the Fox River ecosystems, rather than prioritizing human advancements.” Jeff Duan examines the intersection of casino boat gambling and environmentalism, in his essay “Behind the Glitz and the Glamor.” In “The Growth of Elgin and the History of the Fox River,” Alan Hernandez scrutinizes the river’s role in the rise of Illinois’ seventh largest city. The concluding essay of our book, Nooriyah Doriwala’s “Personhood of Natural Entities,” argues that a legal designation of personhood for the Fox River, while unlikely, “would be an important step to shifting our ideologies from nature's conservation for human recreation to nature's inherent right to exist.”
8 Jenni Schiavone’s canoe trip was one part of a larger effort to raise interest and environmental awareness with regards to the Fox River, in both Wisconsin and Illinois. Sponsored by the environmental group Friends of the Fox River, “It’s Our Fox River Day” is an annual event that combines conservation efforts along the complete course of the river with a celebration of the centrality of the river for life in the region. In 2022, more than 2,000 people participated in fifty-one events along the Fox. Abbreviated IOFRD and pronounced “I Offered,” this day “originated as a 200-mile cleanup to symbolize the need for a unified approach to protect and restore a watershed,” but has grown into something more— “an opportunity for residents to be able to say, ‘I offered’ thanks to my Fox River.”6 The following collection is the historical equivalent of IOFRD, providing historical context for ten millennia or more of human history at the same time promoting an appreciation for the entire watershed. This book is the collaboration of twenty-two talented and diverse scholars, who use rigorous scholarship of the past to explain the present while offering hope for the future—it’s our Fox River history. 6 Friends of the Fox River, “Thank You for making It’s Our Fox River Day a great success!,” https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/its-our-fox-river-day-2/, accessed November 11, 2022.
9 Part One—Origins I stand by the river, and I know that it has been here yesterday and will be here tomorrow and that therefore, since I am part of its pattern today, I also belong to all its yesterdays and will be a part of all its tomorrows. This is a kind of earthly immortality, a kinship with rivers and hills and rocks, with all things and all creatures that have ever lived or ever will live or have their being on the earth. It is my assurance of an orderly continuity in the great design of the universe. —Virginia Eifert, River World
A Bioregion Transformed Mia Benitez The Pleistocene Epoch, which dated from 2.6 million to 11,000 years ago, transformed the ecological aspects of the Fox River bioregion. This period consists of a glacial stage known as the Wisconsin Glaciation, this stage started 75,000 years ago, which is the last stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. Although the Wisconsin Glaciation is only a stage of this epoch, it transformed this bioregion differently than prior stages. The Pleistocene Epoch prompted both positive and negative effects on the Fox River, which established the bioregion that is present to this day. The dispute on whether this transformation had a valuable or damaging influence is indeterminable because of the way this land has supplied society located nearby the Fox River. Although most researchers have argued that the Pleistocene Epoch and Wisconsin Glaciation had a negative impact because of environmental and animal population loss, this glaciation period set the stage for successive human development through improving the ecosystem, supplying an abundance of natural resources, and a balancing the climate. Even though the Pleistocene Epoch transformed the ecosystem through a destructive natural process, it established land that would cultivate a new ecosystem. Illinois’s northern region, which includes the Fox River, was covered by glaciers during the Pleistocene Epoch. During the Wisconsin Glaciation, abrupt climate changes occurred due to a shift in the Earth’s orbit and magnetic field, resulting in an increase in temperatures and volcanic activity. These changes caused glaciers to continuously melt, resulting in long-term flooding to destroy prior biomes and life surrounding the glacier. Animal populations like the stag moose and giant beavers went extinct due to the sudden loss of habitat.
11 Yet, the loss in habitat and population would be regained through the opportunity of new land. Since the glaciers brought material from the north down to Illinois, once the glaciers melted, new materials like soil, sediment, and minerals can be sourced there. This brings the opportunity for new plants and animals to cultivate here. Land that was once frozen, would now become grasslands and forests that inhabit new plants and animals that specifically reside in that type of habitat. New animal species like white-tail deer, cottontail rabbit, and raccoon, live in this bioregion.1 The Pleistocene brought opportunities for Illinois to improve the ecosystem and the environment. This improvement includes the minerals that are sourced from the Fox River. The Wisconsin Glaciation improved the natural resources located in the Fox River bioregion during the Pleistocene Epoch. The north region of Illinois was covered with glaciers while the rest of the state was a tundra because of the extremely low temperatures and lack of glaciers. This type of land yielded no resources because the topsoil was completely frozen. As the glaciers shifted south, they brought soil, glacial deposits, and raw material towards Illinois. It was not until the temperatures increased during the end of the Wisconsin Glaciation; global temperatures increased 6 degrees Celsius annually.2 Thus, causing healthier land and melting glaciers to distribute the resources throughout the land. The majority of the silt, gravel, and sand were distributed to the lower levels of land, which outlined bodies of water.3 Coal, zinc, clay, oil, and gas, were found under the soil.7 The land prior to glaciation held no value because of the frozen land restricting the obtention of resources. Similar to animal and plant populations during the Wisconsin Glaciation, the 1 Illinois State. Geology of Illinois. Illinois State Geological Survey, (2022) https://www2.illinois.gov/dnr/education/Documents/OnlineIntroIllinoisNatRes(56).pdf#:~:text=GLACIATION%20IN%20ILLINOIS%20About%2085%20percent%20of %20what,are%20known%20as%20the%20pre- Illinoian%2C%20Illinoian%20and%20Wisconsinian 2 Stauffer, B., H. Hofer, H. Oeschger, J. Schwander, and U. Siegenthaler. “Atmospheric CO2 Concentration During the Last Glaciation.” Annals of Glaciology 5 (1984): 160–64. doi:10.3189/1984AoG5-1-160-164 3 Illinois State. Glaciers Smooth the Surface. Illinois State Geological Survey, (2022.) pp 1-10. https://isgs.illinois.edu/outreach/geology-resources/glaciers-smooth-surface
12 environment loss during this period was gained through the increase of earth materials from melting glaciers. The gravel sourced from the gravel fields below the layers of topsoil, is mined in the Fox Valley in the present.4 The Wisconsin Glaciation has benefited local populations with its immense supply of gravel. The success brought from this has been improving the use of the land compared to its state before the glaciation, frozen flatland. The melting glaciers improved Illinois’s landscape and supplied the materials that shape the present Fox River. The recovery of Illinois’s tundra resulted in the Fox River bioregion becoming further inhabitable. The Woodfordian period, dated 15000 years ago, is a stage of the late Wisconsin Glaciation. During this time, the land had an extremely thin surface layer of soil. The soil was coarse, brittle, lacked minerals, and contained little to no fossils, with yellow and brown pigment. While the soil after the Pleistocene Epoch was recorded with large moraines, a variety of minerals, fossils such as snail shells, silt, and dark-brown pigment, with soft soil.5 It was conclusive that around the Fox River, there was a similar drift in sand and clay within the soil. McHenry and Kane counties share the same composition of moraines in the ground.6 With this similarity, the improvement of the soil was done by the glaciers because of the way the water traveled as it formed the Fox River. The increasing variety of natural resources contained in the top layer of soil is a sign of the soil recovering from its tundra state, where the soil was frozen and contained no richness that would improve its quality and capability in the agricultural industry of society. Healthier soil possesses the ability to absorb and filter rainfall without risking erosion. With richer soil, the Fox River bioregion 4 Mechanic, Gary. Our Waters, Our Fox. Friends of the Fox River. (Dean Tripp, 2017) https://friendsofthefoxriver.org/2017/05/14/our-waters-our-fox/ 5 Frye, John C, H B Willman, Meyer Ruben, and Robert Black. Definition of Wisconsinan Stage - USGS. (U.S. Geological Survey. U.S. Department of the Interior, 1894). pp E9-E10. https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1274e/report.pdf 10 Mechanic, Gary. Our Waters, Our Fox. 6 Kempton, John P. Subsurface Stratigraphy of the Pleistocene Deposits of Central Northern Illinois, (Urbana, Il: Illinois State Geological Survey, 1963), pp 19-20.
13 became more inhabitable because of its increase in the variety of earth deposits from the aftermath of the Pleistocene Epoch, and the melting of the topsoil in Illinois. The Pleistocene deposits of Northern Illinois increased its abundance of laminated clay after accumulating resources from the melting glaciers. This type of clay consists of a combination of organic material, minerals, and fossils. Pleistocene deposits such as laminated clay also share the ability to filter water. This earth material contains sufficient oxygen, which increases the atmospheric oxidation in the area. It helps mandate healthier soil due to the balanced amount of oxygen that is filtered and flows through the soil. Since Northern Illinois has achieved laminated clay in its land, it is evident that the glaciers have produced successful moraines that help with the recession of glaciers and that there has been a succession with the improvement of soil conditions in Northern Illinois, specifically with the soil surrounding the Fox River. 7 The geographical advancements from the melting glaciers of the Pleistocene Epoch and the Wisconsin Glaciation have improved the climate. Melting glaciers can change the chemistry and temperature of the atmosphere because of its warming and cooling circulation. When the glacier melts, it can release greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon, which are produced by the buildup of gas from organic matter that had been buried within the glacier. Since global warming has impacted glaciers around the world, an immense amount of greenhouse gases has been released into the atmosphere, causing an alteration in its balance. This drastic change can cause climatic storms and temperature fluctuations to occur. Especially with the atmosphere being thin during the Pleistocene Epoch, greenhouse gases would have reacted more severely and rerouted a general circulation of cool air to match with Earth, thus creating a balanced climate. Along with the amount 7 Winchell, Newton Horace. In The American Ecologist. 17. (Minneapolis, MN: The Geological Publishing Company, 1896) pp 289–293.
14 of carbon released into the Earth's atmosphere, the fluctuating cycle found a balance after the glaciers stopped melting.8 Although the Earth’s atmosphere had endured fluctuation in its climate from the melting glaciers, this time period resulted in an improvement of climate compared to what it was before. The Pleistocene Epoch and Wisconsin Glaciation provided inhabitable land with a new ecosystem, an abundance of natural resources, and an improved climate. The melting glaciers caused abrupt changes to the environment, however, the loss in habitat and population would be recovered with the nurturing of the once frozen land. This brings the opportunity for new plants and animals to thrive here. Along with the increasing temperatures, the melting glaciers would distribute the resources throughout the land because of the natural resources buried within the glaciers. Materials such as silt, gravel, and sand were distributed to form the base of the Earth’s topsoil. With coal, zinc, and other minerals found throughout the sediment. Followed with the recovery of soil being beneficial for habitation and its reduced risk against erosion. These geological changes have improved the climate through the melting of glaciers. The levels of greenhouse gases, like carbon, which have been released into the atmosphere have caused fluctuating changes to the climate until the rising temperature had found a balanced with the amount of carbon being released. Thus, creating the atmosphere that is present today. The changes the Pleistocene Epochs endured involved severe risks in order to achieve what is present now. It is arguable that this epoch only caused destruction because of the amount of habitual and animal loss. Yet, with loss, there had been a gain in improvement for both the health of the land, and for the opportunity for new plants and animals to thrive in this bioregion. 8 Pyne, Lydia V., and Stephen J. Pyne. In The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene, (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2013) pp 19-21.
15 Fox River: Its Long-Forgotten Inhabitants Zander Tamez There are a few different tribes that resided alongside the Fox River, namely the Mound Builders who were responsible for various effigies and mounds scattered around Illinois, the Sac and Fox who have a deep intertwined culture with one another, and the Potawatomi nation which held the most power. The mounds left by the Mound Builders are a unique representation of where they used to reside and were made as a result of the waterway that they settled nearby. The Sac and Fox tribes were one of the closest tribes residing to the Fox River and had a distinct culture surrounding the two of them. This culture is a fine example of the type of “place” that Dan Flores spoke of, as the traditions and customs cultivated by the people who live there are the foundation of who they are. The Fox people were also involved in something called the Fox Wars, which was caused by the Fox people holding up trade across the river. The Potawatomi people were similar to the Sac and Fox people in how they interacted with their waterways, however they were on opposing sides of conflict. These diverse tribes with their own ideals and thoughts have all had a relationship with the Fox River that shaped how they approach their daily life and the world around them. Although the Mound builders resided on the Fox River at an earlier time than the rest, this did not change the fact that they were heavily influenced by the river. The early mound builders did not have any animals or livestock to use for transportation, so they turned to the river for help. Their main mode of transportation was a long canoe that went up and down the Fox River, which was carved out of a single log to have room for a decent amount of people and supplies. Because of this travel method, the settlements that these people built were largely against the riverbank where it was easiest to access the river when they were in any need of transportation. As the name entails, the
16 Mound builders were a prehistoric group of people that made these markings called “effigies” in the shapes of various animals. These animal effigies were usually seen in groups that represented similar shapes, The effigies that were made by these mound builders were commonly made near the riverbanks, as most were discovered along the river such as the “lizard effigy mound”1. The lizard mound is an effigy that was created by the mound builders sometime between 650-1300 AD. After its discovery, a park was made for it in an attempt to preserve the works of the Mound Builders called “Lizard Mound Park'' which contains the lizard mound along with several others found within the area. There were more markings of the mound builders found along the Mississippi river as well. Another effigy found in Galena Illinois’s Casper Bluff Land & Water Preserve (also made sometime between 650-1300 AD) is called the “Thunderbird Effigy Mound”2 which has a wingspan of 112 feet and is the last of its kind, as the rest of the thunderbird effigies have worn off and disappeared from the ground. Furthermore, another effigy located in Galena created by the mound builders is the bear effigy mound. This mound is located at Keough Effigy Mounds which is close to the Mississippi River and is the only known bear effigy in Illinois. The Sac and Fox tribes were affected by the Fox River in a different way.1 The Sac and Fox tribes are two distinct tribes of people, however they have been closely linked since the events of the Fox Wars and the relocation of the Fox Tribe. The Fox people named themselves, “The People of the Red Earth,” which is due to their cultural icon, Wisaka, who supposedly formed the first humans out of red clay. The Fox tribe originally resided along the Saint Lawrence River, living off of the waterway as a source of food and general wellbeing. However, the Fox people were involved in various conflicts that were detrimental to them and their 1 J.F. Snyaer, “Prehistoric Illinois: Certain Indian Mounds Technically Considered : Snyaer, J. F. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming,” Internet Archive (Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984), January 1, 1909), https://archive.org/details/jstor-40193991; Jim Johannsen, “Thunderbird Effigy Mound, Galena, Illinois,” Trail Run Project, 2017, https://www.trailrunproject.com/gem/537/thunderbird-effigy-mound; New World Encyclopedia Editors, “Fox (Tribe),” Visit the main page, 2017, https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Fox_(tribe)#History.
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