You’ve probably never heard of the Grand Kankakee Marsh. Most people haven't. Honestly, it’s one of the greatest environmental disappearing acts in American history. Stretching across nearly a million acres of Northern Indiana and parts of Illinois, this massive wetland was once so teeming with life that people literally called it the Everglades of the North.
It was huge.
Imagine a world where the sky turned black because millions of ducks and geese took flight at the same time. We aren't talking about a few birds at a local pond; we are talking about a sky-blotting, deafening roar of wings that lasted for hours. By the mid-19th century, this place was a global destination for hunters, trappers, and explorers who wanted to see a wilderness that felt infinite. But then, we broke it.
The story of the Everglades of the North isn't just a "nature is pretty" tale. It is a gritty, sometimes frustrating saga of industrial-scale hubris and the massive engineering project that turned a world-class ecosystem into flat, silent cornfields in just a few decades.
What the Grand Kankakee Marsh Actually Was
Before the dredges arrived, the Kankakee River didn’t look anything like the straight, ditch-like channel you see today from the window of an I-65 overpass. It was a meandering, drunken snake of a river. It twisted and turned through roughly 2,000 bends over a course that was 240 miles long, even though the distance from start to finish as the crow flies was only about 75 miles.
Because the river moved so slowly and turned so often, it spilled over its banks constantly. This created a massive complex of bayous, islands, and deep-water marshes. It was thick with wild rice, pond lilies, and massive stands of timber.
The biodiversity was staggering.
Biologists and historians like Stephen Ritzenthaler have noted that the marsh supported species we don't even associate with the Midwest anymore. We are talking about wolves, bears, and even elk. It was the premier stopover on the Mississippi Flyway. If you were a migratory bird in 1850, the Grand Kankakee was basically the best Five-Star hotel on the planet.
Why We Targeted the Everglades of the North
Money. It almost always comes down to that, right?
In the late 1800s, the swamp was seen as a "wasteland." That’s the word they used in government reports. To the pioneers and the burgeoning agricultural industry, all that water was just standing in the way of "productive" soil. There was this feverish belief that if you could just get the water out of the way, the peat-rich soil underneath would be the most fertile farmland in the world.
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They weren't entirely wrong about the soil, but they were short-sighted about the cost.
Starting in the 1880s and accelerating into the early 1900s, massive steam-powered dredges began to chew through the landscape. They didn't just clear the river; they straightened it. They cut a deep, straight line through the heart of the marsh, essentially turning the Kankakee River into a drainage ditch. They bypassed the 2,000 bends. They drained the sponges.
By 1917, the work was largely done.
The Everglades of the North vanished. In its place was the "Grand Kankakee Ditch." The water that used to sit and soak into the earth for months was now rushed downstream toward the Illinois River in a matter of days. The birds stopped coming in those massive clouds. The fish died off as their spawning grounds dried up. It was a total ecological collapse, executed with surgical precision and a lot of coal-fired machinery.
The Hunting Clubs and the "Wild West" of the Marsh
Before the drainage, this place was the playground of the elite. You had the Cumberland Lodge, the Fogli Hotel, and the Collier Lodge. These weren't just shacks in the woods. These were high-end resorts where presidents like Benjamin Harrison and industrial titans from Chicago would come to hunt.
It was sort of like the Hamptons, but with more mud and gunpowder.
Locals made a living as "market hunters." They would harvest thousands of ducks in a single week and ship them by rail to restaurants in Chicago and New York. It was a gold mine. The legendary writer Lew Wallace, who wrote Ben-Hur, actually had a houseboat on the Kankakee. He sought refuge there because the wilderness was so thick you could actually disappear.
But the locals and the wealthy hunters were often at odds with the farmers. The farmers wanted the water gone; the hunters wanted it to stay. It was a classic land-use conflict that eventually ended with the farmers—and the powerful drainage boards—winning out.
The Disaster We Didn't See Coming
Draining the Everglades of the North had some pretty nasty side effects that people didn't predict in 1900.
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First, the fire.
The soil was so rich in organic peat that when it dried out, it became highly flammable. Historical accounts describe "ground fires" that would burn for weeks, smoldering underground and sending up acrid smoke. You could be walking across a field and literally fall through the earth into a pocket of burning peat.
Then came the flooding.
By straightening the river, engineers increased the velocity of the water. Now, instead of the marsh acting as a giant sponge that absorbed spring rains, all that water slammed into towns downstream. Kankakee, Illinois, and other communities began facing much more aggressive flood cycles because the natural "braking system" of the Indiana marshes was gone.
And then there’s the wind. Without the thick vegetation and the wet soil to hold everything down, the region became a dust bowl during dry summers. The very soil people fought so hard to "reclaim" was blowing away.
The Modern Fight to Bring it Back
You can't fully rebuild a million-acre marsh. Too many people live there now. There are towns, highways, and multi-million dollar farming operations that depend on that drainage.
But there is hope.
Over the last few decades, a ragtag coalition of conservationists, hunters, and government agencies has been buying up land to create a "string of pearls" along the old river basin. The Kankakee Sands project, managed by The Nature Conservancy, is a massive part of this. They’ve restored thousands of acres of prairie and wetlands near Morocco, Indiana.
They even brought back the bison.
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Seeing a herd of American Bison roaming the sands where the Everglades of the North once stood is a surreal experience. It’s a reminder that nature is incredibly resilient if you just give it a little bit of space to breathe.
Why the Restoration Matters for You
- Flood Control: Restoring even small patches of the marsh helps soak up excess rain, protecting downstream homes.
- Bird Watching: The migratory birds are actually returning. You can now see Sandhill Cranes by the thousands at the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area.
- Carbon Sequestration: Wetlands are incredible at sucking carbon out of the atmosphere—way better than forests, actually.
- Local Economy: Ecotourism is starting to bring people back to these small Indiana towns for kayaking and hiking rather than just driving through.
Is the Everglades of the North Still There?
If you go looking for the Everglades of the North today, you won't find a single, cohesive swamp. You’ll find a landscape of contradictions. You’ll see a perfectly straight river bounded by high levees, and then, just over the ridge, a hidden pocket of cypress-knee-filled water where a Great Blue Heron is stalking a frog.
It’s a ghost of an ecosystem.
But it’s a ghost that’s getting louder. The restoration efforts aren't just about nostalgia; they are about fixing a broken hydrological system. The Nature Conservancy and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources are working to reconnect the river to its old floodplains in strategic spots. It's slow work. It's expensive. But it's happening.
Where to Experience the Remnants
- Kankakee Sands (Indiana): This is the crown jewel. Go here for the bison and the wildflowers.
- Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area: Go in late autumn. The sight of 20,000+ Sandhill Cranes dancing in the fields is something you’ll never forget.
- Grand Kankakee Marsh County Park: You can actually get on the water here and see some of the surviving old-growth timber.
- The LaSalle Fish and Wildlife Area: Great for seeing how the river used to interact with the woods.
Actionable Steps for the Curious
If you want to actually see what’s left of the Everglades of the North, don’t just drive past it on the highway. Start at the Kankakee Sands office in Morocco, Indiana. They have a viewing area for the bison and miles of hiking trails that show you what "high-quality" prairie looks like.
Bring binoculars. Seriously.
If you’re a paddler, put a kayak in at one of the public access points like Dunn’s Bridge. You’ll see the "straightened" river, but pay attention to the banks. You can still see the places where the old river tries to break free.
Support local conservation land trusts. Organizations like NICHES Land Trust are out there buying small 40-acre plots that contain rare plants that don't grow anywhere else on earth. Those tiny plots are the DNA of the original marsh.
Finally, watch the documentary Everglades of the North: The Story of the Grand Kankakee Marsh. It’s a deep look into the history, featuring archival footage and interviews that explain the tragedy and the recovery better than any textbook ever could.
The marsh might never be a million acres again, but the part that’s left is fighting for a comeback. Go see it before the secret gets out.