Maritime history speaks of heroes and vagabonds, lighthouses and shipwrecks, industrialists and back-breaking labor, wartime vigilance and peacetime leisure.  But not necessarily of the sea!  Established astride a primary portage linking the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, Chicago has an overlooked maritime story that comprises all this and more.  Paddling through the area on his way home to Montreal in 1673, French-Canadian voyageur Louis Jolliet was the first to notice the potential utility of the place that was to become Chicago.  The American Indian nations the Illiniwek and Wea, knew the place as a canoe portage between the Mississippi and St. Lawrence rivers.  But none ever dreamed that the sluggish Chicago River would become one of the busiest ports in the world and the city that arose on its banks a transportation center of the North American interior.  The Chicago Maritime Society takes you into this lively world and guides you through the passages of Chicago’s waterway history with a collection of their best writings, photos, and artifacts.                                                                                                     
Softcover, 6 x 9, 378 pgs.