Utica and LaSalle, Illinois

We went to Starved Rock State Park and found many of these white oak carvings around the lodge, just like the ones we saw in Biloxi, Mississippi last winter.  The lodge was beautiful, very rustic.  We ate breakfast there one morning.  We stayed at the camp ground and met some very nice people.  We always meet nice people on our trips. 

There was a museum at the visitors' center, mostly about the Illinois Indians.  They even had this wigwam.

Starved Rock got it's name because in 1760 the Illiniwek Indians fled to the top of the rock after they killed the Potawatomi chief.  The Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians surrounded the rock and didn't let the Illiniwek off the rock so they ended up starving to death.  We climbed the top and this was a view from the top of the Illinois River.

This is an Island in the middle of the river.

Our next stop was in LaSalle at the I&M Canal.  They have one of the old boats they give rides on while hearing the history of the canal.  It was extremely interesting.  Irish immigrants built this canal going from the Mississippi River in St.Louis, Missouri all the way to Chicago.  It made transportation of products quicker and cheaper than going by horse and wagon.  It was 96 miles long, 60 ft wide and 6 ft deep.  It was finished in 1848 and ceased operation in 1933 when railroads became more effective.  The boats were actually barges.  There were paths built next to the canal so a mule could pull the barge.
This is the mule and the "mule boy"

I knew a mule was a cross between a horse and a donkey, but I didn't realize it was always a female horse and male donkey.  They also had passenger barges like this one.  It took 24 hours to make the trip and the way they described the conditions, I'm glad I'm living in this century.

Here's another view of the barge.

Actually the mule didn't have to work very hard.  Once the rope was taught, there was just a slight tug and that got the barge going, then it was nothing to keep it going.

See the rope?  And that mule was just walking.  Once we got to the end of the open canal, they untie the rope from the front of the barge and tie it to the back, give the mule a break and start pulling the opposite direction.

Much of the canal can no longer be used or is totally filled in.  If you go on the link for the I&M Canal up above, you'll find the history very interesting, about Chicago sewerage and Lake Michigan and how they reversed the flow of the Chicago River,