Illinois River Traffic Construction of the Illinois and Michigan
Canal linking the Chicago River with the Illinois River at
LaSalle began in 1836, with the canal opening in 1862. This
opened up the upper Illinois River above Peoria to regular river
traffic and trade. The same year E.W. Gould established the
Maples Packet Company with two boats running three times a week
between St. Louis and Naples, Illinois that connected to the
Sangamon and Morgan Railroad. The canal toll income reached
$300,000 in the mid-1860s. The Illinois Packet Company ran 16
boats and many barges from 1852. Fifteen years later it sold out
and became the St. Louis and Illinois River Packet Company.
Trade on the lower Illinois River changed after the opening of
the Illinois and Michigan Canal because Chicago became a port
from which to sell annually 300,000 bushels of corn and 237,000
bushels of buckwheat that previously would have been shipped
downstream to St. Louis. In 1865 Chicagoans began planning the
Sanitary and Shipping Canal. T