Nature Bulletin No. 739   January 18, 1964
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Seymour Simon, President
Roberts Mann, Conservation Editor

****:EARLY COOK COUNTY ROADS -- PART TWO
-- THE PLANK ROAD ERA

For ten years after Chicago, with a population of 4,170, was chartered 
as a city in 1837, its commerce and growth were crippled by wretched 
transportation to and from the hinterlands. During many periods of 
each year it was surrounded and isolated by mud.

To be sure, there were dirt thoroughfares in all directions, graded and 
drained as best they could in those days, but not surfaced. No one who 
has never experienced it can appreciate how gooey and gluey a black 
prairie soil can be when wet. A wagon's wheels often become solid 
cylinders of mud as wide as a bass drum.

Then, in 1848, there occurred a "break through": three developments 
of vital importance In July the Illinois and Michigan Canal from 
Chicago to Peru and the Illinois River, started in 1836, was finally 
completed and opened for traffic.

In October the Galena and Chicago Union, the first railroad (now part 
of the Chicago & Northwestern Ry.), was completed across the Slough 
of Despond and to the Des Plaines River. Within a few years, five 
other railroads had arrived: the Michigan Southern, the Michigan 
Central, the Rock Island, the Illinois Central, and the Burlington.

And in September, 1848, the Southwestern Plank Road was completed 
from Chicago to Doty's Tavern at what is now the intersection of 
Ogden Ave with Joliet Ave. in Lyons, In 1850 it was extended to 
Brush Hill and Fullersburg (now Hinsdale), and in 1851 to Naperville. 
From there, a plank road was built to Oswego and Little Rock; and 
another to Warrenville, St. Charles, and Sycamore.

That was the first of a network of plank roads that radiated outward 
like the spokes of a wheel. Chicago was the hub. In 1849, the 
Northwestern Plank Road was constructed on Milwaukee Ave. to Oak 
Ridge at what is now Irving Park Blvd.; thence to Dutchman's Point 
(now Niles); and finally to Wheeling. The Western Plank Road was 
built westerly from Oak Ridge to Bloomingdale in DuPage County and 
thence to Elgin.

In 1851 the Southern Plank Road was constructed along the lines of 
State St. and Vincennes Ave. as far as Kyle's Tavern at about 83rd St. 
where it was halted by the approach of the Illinois Central RR. In 1854 
the Blue Island Plank Road was completed on Western Ave. to its 
junction with Blue Island Ave., then the southwest corner of Chicago. 
There was also a 5-mile plank road parallel to the lake shore from 
North Ave. and Clark St. to Green Bay Road.

In 1839 a plank road was built in Canada, instigated by the 
governor-general who had seen them in Russia. The idea spread to 
New York, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana where laws governing the 
incorporation of plank road companies were enacted. Built at a cost of 
about $2000 per mile, they were very profitable at first. There were toll 
gates at intervals of 5 or 6 miles. On the first stretch of the 
Southwestern Plank Road, the tolls were 12 1/2 cents (one "bit") for a 
man on horseback, two bits for a single team, and three bits for a 4-
horse vehicle.

Usually there was a row of heavy stringers on each side of a 16-foot 
roadway and across them were laid (but not spiked) heavy planks of 
pine and hemlock or, better, oak and walnut. However, the planks 
soon warped, decayed, and frequently floated away or were "borrowed" 
by neighboring settlers. After a few years, with little or no 
maintenance, most plank roads became so uncomfortable and 
dangerous that they were abandoned. The decline of those 
"revolutionary improvements" was almost as rapid as their rise.

Much of the foregoing information was obtained from "Chicago's 
Highways -- Old and New", by Milo M. Quaife.