| Des Plaines River | |
|---|---|
 A section of Des Plaines River inLake County, Illinois. | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | West of Kenosha, Kenosha County, Wisconsin |
| • coordinates | 42°40′25″N88°01′35″W / 42.6736°N 88.0265°W /42.6736; -88.0265 (Des Plaines River (source)) |
| Mouth | |
• location | Illinois River |
• coordinates | 41°23′23″N88°15′18″W / 41.3898°N 88.2549°W /41.3898; -88.2549 (Des Plaines River (mouth)) |
| Length | 133 mi (214 km) |
| Basin size | 630 sq mi (1,600 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Joliet, Illinois |
| • average | 3,799 cu/ft. per sec.[1] |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Des Plaines River →Illinois →Mississippi →Gulf of Mexico |
TheDes Plaines River (/dɪsˈpleɪnz/diss-PLAYNZ) is ariver that flows southward for 133 miles (214 km)[2] through southernWisconsin and northernIllinois[3] in theUnited StatesMidwest, eventually meeting theKankakee River west ofChannahon to form theIllinois River, atributary of theMississippi River.
Native Americans used the river as transportation route andportage. When French explorers and missionaries arrived in the 1600s, in what was then theIllinois Country ofNew France, they named the waterwayLa Rivière des Plaines (River of the Plains). The local Native Americans showed these early European explorers how to traverse waterways of the Des Plaines watershed to travel fromLake Michigan to theMississippi River and itsvalley.
Parts of the river are now part of theIllinois Waterway and theChicago Area Waterway System.
The slow-moving Des Plaines River rises in southernWisconsin just west ofKenosha adjacent to the Great Lakes Dragway and flows southward primarily through marshland, with a small eastbound kink before it crosses intoIllinois. The river continues south through woodland forest preserve districts inLake andCook counties, and through the towns ofDes Plaines, a northwestern suburb ofChicago, andForest Park,River Forest, and the historic village ofRiverside, western suburbs of Chicago. Numerous small fixeddams have been built on the river starting in central Lake County and continuing through Cook County. Eventually, the river turns to the southwest and joins with theSanitary and Ship Canal inLockport before flowing through the city ofJoliet. Here it becomes part of theChicago Area Waterway System and the longerIllinois Waterway.
In the heavily industrialized area around Joliet,dams control the river. A few miles southwest of Joliet, the Des Plaines converges with theKankakee River to form theIllinois River. (41°23′28″N88°15′31″W / 41.390976°N 88.258724°W /41.390976; -88.258724)
Those parts of the Des Plaines River preserved in a mostly natural state are used forconservation andrecreation, while substantially altered sections serve as an importantindustrialwaterway anddrainage channel. The original course of the riverbed was moved to the west at the town of Lockport during the construction of the Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1905.
According toChicago Wilderness Magazine, as the Des Plaines River runs 95 miles (153 km) through four Illinois counties, it "changes from prairie creek to a suburban stream, to a large urbanized river, to a major industrial waterway."[4]
Sections of the river in the Lake County and Cook County Forest Preserve districts in Illinois create "a nearly continuous greenway through all of Lake County and the northern section of Cook County." While canoe launching ramps are available, "The lack of ramps for trailered boats makes this long river a quiet, family-friendly river."[4] This greenway also supports theDes Plaines River Trail, a multi-use trail that roughly follows the course of the Des Plaines River through Lake County and into Cook County.
The Des Plaines River was named by early Frenchcoureurs de bois sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries, after the trees lining the banks of the river.The wordla plaine, in the 18th-century Mississippi Valley dialect of French spoken at the time, referred to either theAmerican sycamore or thered maple, both of which resembled theEuropean plane tree either in theirpalmate leaves or similar bark.[5] This meaning ofplaine survives in Canadian French:Plaine orPlaine rouge refers to anAcer rubrum[6] andAcer saccharinum is sometimes named aplaine blanche.[7]
The English word for the plane tree came from the 14th century Old French wordla plane.[8] Since the later 18th century, the French word for the plane tree has evolved intole platane.[9] As the Latin name for the plane tree isplatanus, this transformation was likely done as a part of the attempts by late 18th-century French academics to change the spelling of many French words to what was perceived as their Latin origins. A side effect of such action was that the original French meaning of the name applied to the Des Plaines River was obscured. Today,des Plaines in modern ParisianFrench literally means "of the plains" or "of the prairie". This has led to confusion about the meaning of the original French name for the Des Plaines River.
Many people today believe that the river was named after the plains and prairies through which the river flows. But, in the 18th-century French dialect, it was more common to use the word "prairie" to indicate a plain, such asPrairie du Rocher in Illinois andPrairie du Chien in Wisconsin. Also, as noted above, it is more likely that the river was named in reference to the trees rather than the land. The French, like the Native Americans, traveled primarily by waterways rather than overland. The view of the prairie was nearly always blocked by trees. To this day a large number of both maples and sycamores grow along the Des Plaines River.
Although the original French name for the river has survived, its pronunciation has been altered. Today, locals pronounce it in an anglicized way (roughly "dess plains"), rather than according to the French pronunciation. It is also commonly referred to as "The DPR" by locals, citing its initials.
Northeast ofBristol, Wisconsin, Brighton creek flows into the river.
Jerome Creek and the Root River both converge with the Des Plaines nearPleasant Prairie, Wisconsin.
Mill Creek ofOld Mill Creek flows through County Forest Preserve before entering the Des Plaines River.
Another tributary of the river near theIllinois-Wisconsin border is Osprey Lake, inGurnee, Illinois, which flows through a small unnamed creek before dumping into the river.
Bull Creek inLibertyville, Illinois flows into the Des Plaines near Independence Grove Forest Preserve.[10]
InLincolnshire, Illinois, Indian creek flows eastward into the Des Plaines River.
NearChicago Executive Airport, the Wheeling Drainage Ditch ofWheeling, Illinois flows southeast through the town and adds to the river.
McDonald Creek inMount Prospect, Illinois flows into the Des Plaines in Dam No. 2 Woods.
Southeast of Mount Prospect and due north ofDes Plaines, Illinois, Weller Creek flows south into the DPR.
Half a mile east ofO'Hare International Airport, Crystal Creek meanders its way into the Des Plaines.
Salt Creek of Hollywood,a neighborhood in Brookfield, Illinois, begins in Palatine and flows downstream into the river.
As the Des Plaines river begins to run parallel to theChicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, Portage Creek enters the river.
Northwest ofLemont, Illinois, Goose Lake flows directly into the Des Plaines River.
The Des Plaines and the Sanitary and Ship Canal finally merge on the edges ofCrest Hill, Illinois.
Hickory Creek flows into the Des Plaines at the bottom of the Brandon Road Dam.
Rock Run, Cedar Creek, and Jackson Creek all flow into the river near the border ofJoliet, Illinois andChannahon, Illinois east of I-55.
TheDuPage River merges with the Des Plaines inChannahon, Illinois.[11]
About three miles downstream, theKankakee River merges with the Des Plaines River to form theIllinois River.
The Des Plaines River Bridge inJoliet is acantilever bridge that is six lanes wide—three lanes traveling eastbound and westbound. The bridge is signed as part ofInterstate 80. The bridge is located on the south side of Joliet.
ATunnel and Reservoir Plan (the Chicago Deep Tunnel) to reduce the harmful effects of floods and the flushing of rawsewage intoLake Michigan is semi-operational. It diverts storm water and sewage into temporary holdingreservoirs. Themegaproject is one of the largestcivil engineering projects ever undertaken in terms ofscope, cost and timeframe. Commissioned in the mid-1970s, the project is managed by theMetropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. Completion of the system is not anticipated until 2029, but substantial portions of the system have opened.
A modernflood control study[12] stated that flooding on the Des Plaines River has caused significant damage and adverse economic impacts. The greatest recorded flood, in September 1986, caused an estimated $35 million in damage to 10,000 dwellings and 263 business and industrial sites. A Phase I flood control Project was authorized under the Water Resources Development Act of 1999. Project features include levee, dam, and reservoir expansion at a total cost of $50.5 million (in 2002).
On August 24, 2007, the river flooded by over 9 feet (2.7 m).[13] On September 14, 2008, the river flooded after the area received more than 10 inches (250 mm) of rainfall over two days.[14]
In the six months prior to his December 1978 arrest, serial killerJohn Wayne Gacy discarded the remains of at least four of his thirty-three known victims into the river, after finding no other suitable locations to dispose of them, due to the further twenty-nine known victims being buried in the crawlspace or other locations upon the grounds of his home.[15]
The Des Plaines River is the site of the Des Plaines River Canoe & Kayak Marathon.[16] The race was founded in 1957 byRalph Frese, and is the second oldest continual canoe race in the United States.Fishing is a common practice along the Des Plaines River with a steadygame fish population ofbluegills,carp,catfish,crappie,largemouth bass,northern pike,smallmouth bass andsunfish.
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