It has taken us a little longer to prepare this post because we've been exploring the Western Suburbs of Chicago from outer space and the beginning of time. It's heavy stuff, and that was just learning to use the Google Earth! We are happy to say though, we've really got our geek groove on and have set up what we feel will make a nice ongoing piece. This doesn't mean we've given up modern times and people. In fact, we are working on posts about some fabulous local folks for the near future. But for now, let's go back 11,500 years to when the Chicagoland prairies first formed.
Click our Google Earth image above to see it larger
Northern Illinois is known for its harsh environment and this has been going on for a very long time. The entire region was covered by at least 4 glaciers with the Wisconsinan being the last to occur between fifty and fifteen thousand years ago. As it melted back it formed what is known as Lake Chicago which extended from the current lake front to about 2 miles west of where the Des Plaines river now runs. Everything from the City to much of suburban Cook County was once under water, including the villages of River Forest, Oak Park and Riverside. According to our map, LaGrange probably was prime lake front property!
Illinois native grass big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) in foreground.
Glaciers provided a way for the original native American settlers to reach this land, gave us our familiar flat landscape, great lakes and much more local natural history. We've taken a look and compiled pictures of the Illinois native plants past and present.
Download Pottering Around the Western Suburbs of Chicago.kmz (98.2K)
Use the link above to visit our new local exploration on Google Earth. We will continue to add more information and images to the place.
Prairie and savanna were not the original northern Illinois landscape. As the glaciers retreated, vegetation moved into the new ice-free zone. Because temperatures were still colder, species more common in Canada such as white spruce (Picea glauca), black spruce (Picea mariana) and larch (Larix laricina) dominated for about 1,000 years.
As the climate began to warm, deciduous trees began to appear. Among the varieties were ironwood (Carpinus caroliniana) pictured above top, balsam fir (Abies balsamea) shown above bottom and black ash (Fraxinus nigra). This forest mix that occured is unusual and not found anywhere today.
Around 13,000 years ago the climate is thought to have cooled again and trees such as the alder (Alnus) shown above bottom, were common. Then about 12,000 years ago apparently things really began to heat up. The conifers, spruce and fir began to disappear and black ash, oak and elm (Ulmus) prevailed. Walnut (Juglans) shown above top, Sugar Maple pictured above middle and hickory were also abundant.
9,000 to 6,000 years ago the region went through periods of wet and dry weather (sound familiar). Eventually it became predominately drier and what could be considered a more modern landscape began to form. Grasses such as big bluestem, indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) above top, prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) above middle, prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) above bottom, rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium) and prairie cordgrass (Spartina pectinata) wove a tapastry accoss the vast spaces.
As can be seen on our Google Earth image, tall grass prairies covered most of the area from Chicago to the Western Suburbs. Hinsdale and Burr Ridge sat in the middle of a what the early explorers described as a vast natural colorful flower garden as far as the eye could see. However, with hot summers and dry grasses came prairie fires.
Burning fields were also witnessed with amazement by the early European settlers. Scientist don't seem to agree if the fires occurred naturally by lightning strikes or if set deliberately by the native Americans. The theory is the Indians would set the fires to clear the area to make it easier for walking and hunting as well as for spotting incoming invaders like Europeans!
Whether ignited naturally or as a quick and efficient landscaping maintenance technique, the fires left their mark on the terrain. Many of the earlier more flammable varieties were completely wiped out while the trees such as mighty black oak (Quercus velutina) shown above, could better withstand the surrounding fires to assure their permanent place in the landscape. Also on our Google Earth image you can see how there were strips of forested land that survived along the major bodies of water such as Lake Michigan shore and mainly the east sides of the rivers because the fires would spread from the west and be stopped by the rivers.
Along the sandy edge of Lake Michigan, different plant varieties thrived. Pictures of some of them can be seen along with more prairie plants on a flickr gallery we created. We thank all the photographers whose images we chose to share above. You can see more of each person's work on flickr by clicking on any of the photos above.
As landscape designers we look forward to continuing our exploration of our local landscape and the people and places that continue to create it. If you have any information we chould share, please let us know. We would love to hear from you.
