The Hennepin Canal State Trail, also just called the Hennepin Canal, is an abandoned waterway in northwest Illinois, between the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the Illinois River near Hennepin. The entire canal is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Opened in 1907, the canal was soon abandoned because of railroad competition. It was resurrected in the late 20th century as a recreational waterway. Its former name was the Illinois and Mississippi Canal. The main canal length is , and its feeder canal is long. The state park spans five counties (Rock Island, Bureau, Henry, Lee and Whiteside) and is long.
History
The Hennepin Canal was first conceived in 1834 as a connection between the Illinois and Mississippi River, but financial problems in the state delayed many public works projects. Pressure for transportation that was cheaper than rail convinced Congress to authorize preliminary surveys on the project in 1871. Construction began in 1892 and the first boat went through in 1907, reducing the distance by barge from Chicago to Rock Island by . While the canal was under construction, however, the Corps of Engineers undertook a widening of the locks on both the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. The new locks on those rivers were twenty and forty feet wider than the canal locks, making the latter obsolete before their initial use.
In the 1930s the Hennepin Canal was used primarily for recreational traffic. The Hennepin Canal was open to boat traffic until 1951 at no cost. Ice made from the canal's frozen waters was sold during the winters to help pay the canal's maintenance costs.
The Hennepin was the first American canal built of concrete without stone cut facings. Although the Hennepin enjoyed only limited success as a waterway, engineering innovations used in its construction were a bonus to the construction industry. The canal was used as a training ground for engineers who later worked on the Panama Canal. Both the Hennepin and Panama Canals used concrete lock chambers and both used a feeder canal from a man made lake to water the canals because both needed water to flow uphill.
There are 33 locks on the canal. All are now visible, but the first one, on the Illinois River, had been under water from the 1930s until recent times. Lock #1 is only accessible on foot during the winter months; thick vegetation, the lack of a maintained towpath, and nearby private property prevent access during the summer.
Fourteen of the locks had Marshall gates, which are unique to the Hennepin, and were raised and lowered on a horizontal axis. Five of the locks have been restored to working condition, although they are not used. One of these is a Marshall Gate lock. All of the gates from the remaining locks have been replaced with concrete walls, creating a series of waterfalls.
The Hennepin originally had nine aqueducts – concrete troughs which carried the canal and its traffic across larger rivers and streams. Six of the aqueducts remain while the other three were replaced by pipes that carry the flow under the creek or river which the canal crossed.
Geography
The Hennepin Canal follows a natural low area between Hennepin and Rock Island. This is actually the ancient channel of the Mississippi River, which at one time flowed from Rock Island to Hennepin, and then south through what is now the Illinois River channel. The Illinoian Stage, about 300,000 to 132,000 years before present, blocked the Mississippi River near Rock Island, diverting the Mississippi into its modern channel.
History of the canal
The Hennepin Canal was built in order to lower freight prices. Local and government supporters struggled to get it built.
The idea to build the canal arose in 1834 (Sage 1). It would allow the shipping of heavy and bulky freight where the railroad could not. The proposed canal would join the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers creating a quick route from Chicago to the Mississippi River. To build the canal would mean that local citizens would have to gain the support of their state and other beneficial government officials (Yeater 2).
The canal reduced the distance from the Illinois River to the Mississippi by . Interest in the canal increased during the Civil War, when relations between the Union and the British were deteriorating to the point where war was possible. If this happened, the St. Lawrence River and Welland Canal would be closed to U.S. ships, and people from the Great Lakes area could not compete in eastern markets. Because war did not occur, many of those who initially supported the project soon lost interest (Yeater 2).