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Photograph of Chicago Portage National Historic Site
Photograph by Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Chicago Portage National Historic Site

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

From the record

“The Chicago Portage National Historic Site is a National Historic Site commemorating the importance of the Chicago Portage in Lyons, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located in Chicago Portage Forest Preserve and the Ottawa Trail Woods Forest Preserve, at the junction of Portage Creek with the Des Plaines River, on the west side of Harlem Avenue on the line of 48th Street.”

Wikipedia article Chicago Portage National Historic Site, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 621 National Register listings published here for Cook County · listed in 1966 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Fires near this property

2 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Chicago Portage National Historic Site in 2005, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 June 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
20 May 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Every fire recorded in Cook County

Mines and quarries near this property

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Chicago Portage National Historic Site: 6 past producers, 2 plants, 1 producer. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Perlite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Silbrico Expanded Perilite PlantPerliteProducer
Dolese and Shepard Crushed StoneStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Federal Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Mc Cook Yard No. 387 & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Riverside Lime and Stone Co QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Summit Quarry Consumers CompanyStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Superior Stone Co QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
West Chester City Eng. - Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Wester Springs City Eng.-Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this property

5 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Forest View, the town this property stands in, in 5 storm reports between 2010 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2025Thunderstorm WindForest View-Video shared on social media showed a small tree limb broken near 51st Street and McVicker Avenue.
July 2023Heavy RainForest View-A private weather station, KILSTICK6, recorded 7.47 inches of storm total rainfall.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindForest View-Multiple trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down in Forest View.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindForest View-Trees, tree limbs, power lines and light poles were blown down in a swath between Interstate 55 and west of Midway Airport.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindForest View-Numerous trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down across southwest areas of the City of Chicago.

Every storm recorded in Cook County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Hofmann Tower1.1 miles1978
Avery Coonley House1.4 miles1970
Arcade Building1.4 miles2016
Riverside Water Tower1.5 miles1969
Mr. Robert Silhan House1.7 miles2007
F.F. Tomek House1.7 miles1999

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 66000108 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cook CountyAll 621 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.