Old Chicago Trail
Location:
The marker is located in Paw Paw, in Rogers Park, adjacent to the old Chicago Trail Road. (The town of Paw-Paw is on a county road, east of Interstate 39, Exit 82.)
Dedication Date:
01/01/1986
Dedication By:
State Bank of Paw Paw and The Illinois State Historical Society
Marker Description:
The Old Chicago Trail extended from Fort Dearborn to Galena. A government mail route was established along this Indian trail in 1829. The Potawatomi ceded their territory to the government in 1833. This route became the first East-West stagecoach trail across Northern Illinois. Paw Paw Grove, one of the first settlements along the route, was a midway haven between Chicago and Galena. It was over this trail Poetess Margaret Fuller traveled in 1843, she wrote: "We traveled the blooming plain unmarked by any road, only the friendly track of the wheels which beat, not broke the grass. Our stations were not from town to town, but from grove to grove."
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