Butterfield Trail
CITY:
Gilman
COUNTY:
Iroquois
DEDICATED BY:
Gilman Lions Club and The Illinois State Historical Society
DEDICATION DATE:
January 1, 1971 at 6:00:00 AM
The marker is located 3 miles east of Gilman and 4 miles west of Crescent City, on the south side of US 24.
For many years Butterfield Trail was one of the main routes from east-central Illinois to the Chicago area. In 1831 Ben Butterfield marked out the trail from Danville to Lockport, where he had settled the previous year. The trail crossed Spring Creek two miles northwest of Buckley. Following an old Indian trail, it stayed west of the creek, continuing northward and passing this point. It avoided the Iroquois River and forded the Kankakee west of Bourbonnais. Thence it ran to Hickory Creek and the Des Plaines River. At a point near Joliet it forked, both forks leading to Chicago.