The Tragic True Story Of The Great Chicago Fire

As with so many Midwestern cities, Chicago was originally home to indigenous peoples; according to the city's website, Baxoje, Hoocak, Jiwere, Kiash Matchitiwuk, Nutachi and other tribes made their homes here. It was a matter of convenience, for the Chicago area was "located at the intersection of several great waterways." The Reader explains that the natives called the area "shikaakwa," translated to "Chicago" by the French who explored the area. The early Native trails around Lake Michigan would later become cattle paths and, eventually, roads. That was in the 1770's when Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the son of a French sailor and an African slave, settled on the Chicago River with his Native wife.
In 1803, the American government constructed Fort Dearborn at today's Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. Smithsonian magazine verifies that early Chicago, founded in 1833, was just a "wilderness outpost" with a population numbering around 350 residents. But the young city grew amazingly quickly, with an influx of people and buildings flying up at every turn. Great Chicago Fire puts it beautifully, describing the early city as "a titanic natural force: unpredictable, unstoppable, all-consuming, and impossible to ignore." The metropolis was not typical in any way. Rather, the city was growing at break-neck speed as a central hub of information, goods, and transformation of the Victorian era.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB%2Bk2lobmlfqbWmedOrmKChk2LBs8HEZqqtp6KuerCyjK2fnmWXp7KiwIycn6KbkZy8brLIq5xo