PEORIA (25News Now) – For thousands of years before highways and railroads, the Illinois River served as the lifeline of what is now Peoria.
In the 1600s, the Illinois River provided resources for indigenous people and settlers by both river and land.
“It was life to many people. You needed water, you needed access to water to get to other places, to get fish, to get river rock, to build onto your homes,” said Amber Lowry, assistant at the Peoria Public Library. “It’s obviously worked well because we have families here in Peoria who have been here since the 1830s.”
Steamboat-era transportation boom
Lowery, a historian at the Peoria Public Library, said by the 1830s, steamboats were rolling through, providing a way for people to travel the U.S.
“The steamboats could come down from the Chicagoland area and Lake Michigan and come through all the way down the side of Illinois through the Illinois River and then catch on to the mighty Mississippi and then get all the way to New Orleans,” Lowry said.
The Illinois River was also the site of hardship as people continued to settle in the area.
“You have just several tragedies where people tried to cross a river in wintertime and it wasn’t solid enough,” Lowry said.
River continues to shape modern Peoria
Despite those challenges, the river still shapes Peoria today.
“It’s a way of entertainment. It’s a way to do something different for fun. People still go every day to watch the river. They come down to the riverfront to look at it. It isn’t just our background. It is part of our life,” Lowry said.
Brian “Fox” Ellis, director of outreach and education for the Illinois Audubon Society, said the river’s clean spring water, oak trees for making barrels, and Irish and German immigrants who knew how to brew made Peoria an economic powerhouse.
“We were the economic powerhouse of the nation, paying 50% of the federal budget during the heydays of the whiskey barons,” Ellis said.
He added that not only did whiskey boost the local economy, but the corn belt plays a major role, too.
“All the people who work in farm-related industries are dependent on the ease of shipping the river provides. But how many of you eat? If you eat food, then this river helps to bring that food to you,” Ellis said.
Environmental improvements show progress
He said thanks to the Clean Water Act, the river is much cleaner, bringing life back into the stream.
“Fish populations are returning. I’ve seen people here today bird-watching because a red-throated loon has been sighted, and loons live in cleaner water. They’re visual hunters,” Ellis said. “So things are much better than they used to be, but not all the challenges have gone away.”
From its foundational role in Peoria’s history to its economic and environmental significance, the Illinois River remains indispensable.
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