Lake Calumet is the largest body of water within the city of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Formerly a shallow, postglacial

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

draining into Lake Michigan, it has been changed beyond recognition by industrial redevelopment and decay. Parts of the lake have been

dredge Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...

d, and other parts reshaped by landfill. Together with the rest of the city of Chicago, the remnant of the lake now drains into the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River () is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American Her ...

and the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

basin via the

Cal-Sag Channel The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, the ...

and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. ''Calumet'' is a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

word used since the 17th century by French colonists in Canada for the

ceremonial pipe A ceremonial pipe is a particular type of smoking pipe, used by a number of cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in their sacred ceremonies. Traditionally they are used to offer prayers in a religious ceremony, to make a ceremonial ...

s they saw used by

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

peoples.

History

Until the 1800s, Lake Calumet was near the center of an extensive

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

area near the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Like other wetland areas, the Lake Calumet area and its rivers were a center of Native American life and settlement. In 1861, the Lake Calumet region was mapped into Hyde Park Township, south of what was then the town of Chicago. In the 1880s, because the lake's

Calumet River The Calumet River is a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, the ...

created shipping opportunities to connect into Lake Michigan, the swampy zone was rapidly filled and developed by industry. Hyde Park Township developed rapidly and was annexed into Chicago in 1889. The area remains heavily industrialized today. The Chicago neighborhood of Pullman was developed as a company town with residences and services offered for rent to the workers in railroad

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

factories. The complex, now a National Monument, is sited on the lake's west shore. Steel mills began to line the Calumet River. The Illinois Central railroad was built nearby. In the 1950s, part of the former lakebed was used as a right-of-way for a freeway, which was originally named in the lake's honor as the ''

Calumet Expressway Interstate 94 (I-94) generally runs north–south through the northeastern portion of the US state of Illinois, in Lake and Cook counties. It is signed east–west in Illinois in accordance with its general alignment across the country, wit ...

''. The lake was deepened in 1958 and large slips were added with the intent to harbor large ocean-going freighters anticipated after the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. However, the increased traffic never truly materialized, and the port infrastructure largely lay dormant. Another parcel of former wetland, south of the lake, was designated as what is now the Paxton Landfill, the final home for much of the household and industrial solid waste generated within the city of Chicago. Some of the landfill was steel mill slag and other industrial wastes. The revelation of hazardous chemicals in much of the fill material has created a push to have parts of the Lake Calumet area added to the national Superfund list for environmental cleanup. In the early 1980s, the Lake Calumet area was proposed as a site for the later-cancelled Chicago 1992 World's Fair. In 1996, the Calumet Expressway was renamed the Bishop Ford Freeway, honoring Chicago religious leader Bishop Louis Henry Ford.

Today

The remains of Lake Calumet lie east of the Bishop Ford Freeway ( Interstate 94) on the far south side of Chicago, between 103rd and 130th streets. The lake is part of the underutilized Port of Chicago. A lakeside grain elevator can be seen from the freeway. South of the lake, the freeway passes the Paxton Landfill, including pipes that collect

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ea ...

and other gases generated by the landfill. The vestigial lake officially lies within Chicago's South Deering community area. Cleanup efforts in former landfills areas continue .

Ecology

The wetlands surrounding Lake Calumet were noted as the only location where specimens of '' Thismia americana'', an example of endemic wet

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

, were ever collected. Due to the profound physical changes that have taken place in the Lake Calumet catchment area, this plant is now believed to be extinct. Although Lake Calumet has undergone extensive human alteration over the period from 1880 through 2010, parts of the basin remain a wetland. The basin has been designated an ''Important Bird Area of Illinois'' and is part of the flyway along Lake Michigan and the rivers.

Superfund status

On March 2, 2010, the EPA designated the ''Lake Calumet Cluster'', a cluster of sites grouped around Lake Calumet, for the Superfund List. Several local areas within this cluster are extremely hazardous; excavation workers must use masks and self-contained supplies of air or oxygen. Despite these challenges, planners hope to conduct remedial cleanups of less-severely contaminated sites to permit adaptive reuse. They will cap the more heavily contaminated sites within the cluster.

Landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane ...

could be collected and the methane filtered for use.http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/pha/LakeCalumetClusterSite/LakeCalumetClusterPHA--2-10-2009--%20FinalReleaseA.pdf

Maps and images

Placemark for Lake Calumet area
(requires Google Earth)

References

{{authority control Geography of Chicago Calumet Bodies of water of Cook County, Illinois