Ancient Navigable Canal Discovered on the Rock River in Illinois

Ancient Navigable Canal Discovered on the Rock River in Illinois

The ancient canal is discernable from the bed of the old channel of the Green River. This is almost exactly three miles from the natural junction of the Green and Rock Rivers as the article described.


History of Mifflin County Illinois, 1885

     On the banks of Green River, in Henry County in Illinois, are traces of an ancient city, which was once the abode of a commercial people, and points to a time when the Rock River was a navigable stream of some commercial importance. A canal connected these two rivers some three miles above the junction. This canal is about a mile and a half long and is perfectly straight for about one-fourth of a mile from the Green River end; it is then relieved by a perfectly easy curve, reaching the Rock River at a bend, and showing that the engineering was done in a masterly manner. The soil is of a very fine texture, mixed with a ferruginous mineral deposit; hence its firmness, and the reason of it withstanding the washings of rains, for this great lapse of time. About twelve miles back and above this canal is another partly natural and partly artificial connecting Rock and Mississippi Rivers. This is so well preserved that about twelve years ago the "Serling" a small Rock River steamer, passed through it into the Mississippi River. These works are as old as the mountains of Egypt and were in all probability built by a contemporaneous people.