Meetings & Events

This lecture is not about shipwrecks, but hopefully some of you will take advantage of this free lecture to learn more about local archaeology.

• Sunday, April 29, 3:00 PM
• “Re-investigating Important Chicago Area Archaeological Sites”
• Mr. Edward Lace
• North Shore Retirement Hotel,
• 1611 Chicago Avenue,
• Evanston, Illinois

The Laughton Trading Post

Time and financial constraints need not deter the enthusiast from archaeological exploration because archaeological adventure can be at your feet in the Chicago area as will be pointed out by archaeologist/naturalist Ed Lace when he speaks to the Chicago Archaeological Society on April 29, 2012 to discuss the importance of the Laughton Trading Post  in Illinois and Chicago area archaeology.

The geographical relationship of the Des Plaines River, Mud Lake, Chicago River and Lake Michigan was responsible for the rapid development of the metropolis of Chicago. This relationship was the connecting link by water and a short portage of the Great Lakes region to the Mississippi River and the Great Northwest. The water route and the paralleling land routes (later to become some of our main highways) enabled the French to explore the Mississippi Valley and Illinois and  later as the western gateway to Chicago.

North of 47th Street, in Ottawa Trail Woods, you can walk along the ridge where many footsteps passed their way to Laughton's Ford. A rocky outcrop still marks this ford in the present river and you can pause at the site of Laughton's Trading Post, where the ghosts of Indians and traders linger.

The Forest Preserve District of Cook County, in cooperation with the I & M Canal Civic Center Authority, is developing a major interpretive facility, which will include a museum, archeological center, a replica of Laughton's Trading Post, library and other resources.

The locations of Laughton's Trading Post and its location at Laughton's Ford were defined in an 1832 report by a U. S. engineer and shown on a later map. At the map’s location, two blocks north of the 47th St. entrance and 400 feet west of the drive through that forest preserve, is found a rectangular depression apparently an old cellar. At each corner there is a low masonry wall. In the center is a boulder commemorating that historic site.