Joliet Mound

This is the site of Mount Joliet, a natural eminence named for the explorer Louis Jolliet. It was 1350 feet long and 225 feet wide, with a flat top and steep escarpment, rising 140 feet above the Des Plaines River bed, of 60 feet above the bank. First shown on a 1674 map, the mound served for almost 175 years as a landmark for measuring distances on the river route from Chicago to the Mississippi. Completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848 obviated the need for this information. The mound has since been leveled by quarrying.