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| Chicago River, 1870's (The Urban Wilderness, 1995) |
On
this day, June 3, way back in 1877, the Chicago
Tribune wrote an editorial that praised the efforts to establish an intake
crib far enough out in the lake to ensure fresh water to Chicago’s citizens
while taking to task the businesses that made that effort so difficult. Here in its entirety is that editorial:
Dr.
Knox, who assists the Health Commissioner, has made a long, elaborate, and
technical report on the condition of the lake water supplied to Chicago, which
attests a careful investigation. This
makes especially valuable his assertion that the crib water is “the purest
furnished to any city in the United States.’
He has discovered two things, however, or rather directed new attention
to them, which will not admit of this assertion being made truthfully after a
while, if measures be not taken to abate them.
One of the unfavorable conditions, and the principal one, is the Ogden
ditch, which causes the Chicago River to empty into the lake whenever there are
hard rains or a freshet. Millions of
dollars were spent in order to change the current of the Chicago River, so that
the waters of the lake might wash it out with a reasonable current, and the
failure to dam up this ditch occasions every once in a while an emptying of the
filth of the river into the lake where the water supply is taken, or at best
leaves the river stagnant and putrid. A
temporary dam could be erected at the cost of a few thousand dollars which
would serve the purpose until provision can be made for a permanent stoppage of
the ditch, letting the Aux Plaines River meander along in its own harmless
way. The other nuisance referred to is
the practice of the distilleries located on the North Branch dumping the refuse
of their business and cattle into the lake near the shore. The slaughtering houses on the South Branch
do the same thing; and Dr. Knox estimates that these establishments contribute
a weekly supply of 500 tons of filth, garbage, and decaying animal matter to
the water which the people of Chicago drink.
These people can be prevented from dumping their stuff anywhere within
three miles of the shore, and stringent measures should be taken to enforce
this authority over them.
The
Ogden ditch was constructed across the extensive land holdings of one of
Chicago’s earliest settlers, William B. Ogden, who also served as the city’s
first mayor. Constructed in 1868 about a
dozen miles west of the city, its purpose was to drain a significant chunk of
the Des Plaines river valley which otherwise lay under water for much of the
year. It achieved its purpose by
connecting with the west branch of the Chicago River, so while city fathers
were doing anything and everything within their power to limit the amount of
river water flowing into the lake (something that was not achieved until
January of 1900 when the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was opened) the Ogden
Ditch, especially during heavy rains, frustrated these attempts.
As
far as the distilleries were concerned, think about this – in 1878 the eight
registered distilleries in Chicago produced 10,952,799 gallons of distilled
spirits. That’s a lot of booze that
sucked up a lot of grain that used in its production. In a seven year period between 1877 and 1885
Chicago distilleries consumed 16,884,364 bushels of grain, including 13,222,937
bushels of corn, 2,315,362 bushels of rye, 1,102,912 bushels of malt, 216,889
bushels of oats, 10,930 bushels of wheat, 3,141 bushels of barley and 2,193
bushels of mill-feed.
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| Welcome to Chicago (Chicago Daily News Photo Archive) |
After
the mash was created and the fermentation process completed, all of that
expended mash had to go somewhere. The
distilleries solved the problem by keeping large herds of cattle next to their
facilities along the river and fed the mash to the cattle. All those cud-chewers obviously took the mash
and created a by-product of their own, which went directly or indirectly into
the river. The mash that wasn’t consumed
was dumped into the river as well.
And
there were the great Union Stockyards on Halsted Street, 280 acres that held 2,600
cattle pens and 1,600 pens for hogs. In
1877, the year that the Tribune
editorial appeared, 1,033,151 cattle came through the yards, along with
4,025,970 hogs, 310,240 sheep and 7,874 horses.
According to the History of
Chicago: Volume 3, published in
1886, the system of drainage in the yards was “brought to a high state of
perfection, and the sanitary condition of the yards insures the health of the
stock. Fifty miles of sewers have been
laid, which carry all surplus water out into the Chicago River and thence into
the lake.”
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| Chicago Stockyards (Chicago Daily News Archive) |
Interesting
phrase . . . a high state of perfection, a perfection that helped keep the
stock healthy, but which didn’t do much for the 300,000 or so souls that
depended on the quality of the water coming from the lake. On the other hand, there was a lot of whiskey
to take the citizens’ minds off things.
So
that gives a fairly good idea of the indignities that the river suffered in
June of 1877. It would only get worse.
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