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A land of many rivers
Channahon comes from a Native American word for “meeting of the waters.” Here three rivers - the DuPage, Des Plaines and Kankakee - converge to form the Illinois River. For thousands of years, Native Americans used these natural water passages as part of their extensive trade routes. During the Mississippian period (900-1500 A.D.), villages and burial mounds lined the river valley around Channahon.

Two locks and a locktender’s house
I&M Canal engineers had to figure out how to allow the canal to cross the DuPage River in Channahon. They solved the problem by building two locks, one on either side of the river and a dam. They carried the towpath over the river on a pontoon bridge. Today a footbridge and a dam built in the 1930s span the expanse between Locks 6 and 7.

At the I&M trail access in Channahon, you will find one of the two surviving houses where I&M Canal locktenders once lived (the other is nearby at Aux Sable). Locktenders lived next to the locks because they were on call 24 hours a day. They operated the large wooden gates whenever a canal boat came along, sometimes breaking up fights between boat captains jockeying for position.

More about the canal.

A shipping center
At the peak of canal traffic, Channahon, with its six grain elevators, was a lively shipping center. A canal widewater -- an area where the canal was 120 feet wide -- enabled canal boats to stop for loading and business with enough space for boats to pass. After the railroads bypassed Channahon, its commercial center declined, and eventually disappeared.

©2002 Canal Corridor Association