2. Native Americans
Mound Builders
Considered Prehistoric
Briscoe Mounds, Pictured
Located SE of Channahon
Along the River
Illiniwek – Illini
Where here when explorers
came in 1673
Potowatomi
Last tribe in the area
3. French Explorers
In 1673, Father Jacque
Marquette and Louis
Jolliet explored this area
and claimed it for
France!
Traveled up the Illinois
River and suggest it
would be a good area for
a canal!
4. Fur Trappers & Traders
Were up and down
and all along the
waterways – but left
no records!
5. White Settlers
Late 1820’s
Used Potowatomi
Language as place names
6. Potowatomi Language
MINOOKA
Good Earth or Place of
Contentment
CHANNAHON –
Where the waters meet
7. Minooka
Minooka means place of
contentment, good Earth,
high point or place of the
maples in the Potowatomi
Language.
Dolly Smith, the wife of
Leander Smith, spoke the
Potowatomi language and
named Minooka and many of
the streets in the older part of
town.
8. Channahon
Means where the waters
meet. The Kankakee and
Des Plaines Rivers come
together near Channahon to
form the Illinois River.
Channahon was once the site
of a large Potowatomi village.
Chief Bourbonnais raced
his ponies along what we
now know as Rt. 6!
9. Dresden
In 1833, Salmon
Rutherford came to what
we now know as the
Dresden Bluffs and
established the village of
Dresden. This inn was a
stagecoach stop and was
the first inn in Grundy
County! Still standing at
Dollinger’s Family Farm!
10. A Painting of the View from Dresden
Painted in 1842 by
Henry Ainslie
The shallow
Illinois River is on
the left, the white
building is the
Dresden Inn.
This view shows
how the Illinois
Prairie looked at
this time period.
11. Confluence of the Kankakee and
Des Plaines to form the
Illinois River
1907 1930
12. Channahon Township
Joseph Shoemaker came
to Channahon Township
in 1831.
Jessup, Peck, McCowan,
Eames, Tryon ,Fryer and
Knapp
Dr Knapp built a 18’ x
20’ log house that
housed up to 8 people at
one time.
23. Minooka
The Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific Railroad
put tracks through this
area in 1852.
24. Rock Island Depot
1907
Stood by the tracks east
of Wabena Ave.
3 sets of tracks
25. Minooka Grain
The Trains provided a
way for the area farmers
to get their produce to
market.
26. Looking North From
Wapella Before 1929
In 1929 the Rail road decided
to lower the grade of the tracks
in Minooka. Until then the
tracks were level with
Mondamin and Wapella Sts.
Minooka was and is the highest
point in Illinois on this line of
tracks. The trains had trouble
making the grade into town.
Early railroad workers called
the town Summit.
The Village Board fought
against the lowering, wanting a
viaduct instead so there would
not be a dangerous intersection
at Mondamin and Wabena!
27. St. Mary’s Church
Built in 1865
Located behind St.
Mary’s Cemetery on
the west side of the
Railroad tracks.
Burned down in 1903