The life and times of Mr. Chicago River (Aka Chi River to my friends)

Preview of Chicago and your future tour guide!

Mr River Poster

Audio:

Script:
Thank you for downloading my app on your phone and welcome to my city of Chicago, I am Mr. River or Chi River if you please. I know that my city can be a little confusing and there are a lot of signs, tourist maps, and guides but let me try to help you. I will be your guide today and I can give you information about my dear city from the very beginning or present day. You will notice I have a photographic memory (pun intended) and can tell you anything about our shared history. You see I was here before Chicago was even thought of and have seen it all from start to finish.

What’s that? You don’t know where to start? Well let’s start with where it all began first. I can tell you about all the rest later if you have time. If you ever need a break you can hit pause and I will start where we left off next time you launch my app. I have been told I talk a lot so I don’t mind a little break if you need one. Okay where was I? Oh right the start of Chicago, the city. The name “Chicago” is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, translated as “wild onion” or “wild garlic”, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as “Checagou” was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir written about the time. During the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples. The 1780s saw the arrival of the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who was of African and European (French) descent. In 1795, following the Northwest Indian War, an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the United States for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in the War of 1812, Battle of Fort Dearborn and later rebuilt. The Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were eventually forcibly removed from their land following the Treaty of Chicago in 1833.
On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of around 200. Within seven years it would grow to a population of over 4,000. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales commenced with Edmund Dick Taylor as U.S. receiver of public moneys. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837 and went on to become the fastest growing city in the world for several decades.

Well that is a lot covered in a short amount of time. I have a lot more to tell but you should go explore some of things we just talked about. Make sure you visit part of the Fort Dearborn’s outline that is marked by plaques and a line embedded in the sidewalk and road near the Michigan Avenue Bridge and Wacker Drive for example.

Come again and we will start where we left off.

Special thanks to our friends at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago) for all their support in making this content possible.