Third Panel Session

The Illinois and Michigan Canal experience

Building the capacity for leadership and encouraging the widest possible participation in the community decision-making process are critical ingredients in any successful community development effort. Active involvement of citizens in the planning and implementation of projects taps local expertise and empowers the community to tackle ever more ambitious programs. Since resource protection within the heritage corridor happens ultimately at the local level, strong local leadership must exist if commitment and momentum are to be sustained.

To help build that local leadership and assist small and mid-sized canal town downtowns, the Association looked to the National Trust’s Main Street program. Main Street’s balanced four-point approach — organization, promotion, design, and economic restructuring — and nationally proven track record made it an ideal program for the heritage corridor. In 1991, the Canal Corridor Association, in partnership with the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor Commission and the National Trust’s Main Street Center, initiated the first regional Main Street program in the country. It encompassed three demonstration communities — Ottawa, Lockport, and Lemont — and offered special outreach program to other corridor towns. After four years, the results were impressive. The demonstration towns alone saw a net gain of 68 new businesses, 267 full and part-time jobs, 105 private rehabilitation projects valued at $7.4 million and $5.3 million in public improvements.

In Chicago, the Canal Corridor Association, the Chicago Park District, the City of Chicago and a host of other partners are collaborating to create an outdoor interpretive park along the South Branch of the Chicago River where the I&M Canal began. First envisioned in 1985 at a community planning conference, Canal Origins Park will transform a derelict river-edge site into a unique urban park and educational resource. The project has also served as the catalyst for an exciting vision to reclaim an additional 15 acres of river-edge property surrounding the South Branch Turning Basin to create Canalport Nature Park.

As the centerpiece of Canalport Nature Park, the Canal Origins Park will pay tribute to the I&M Canal for its role in transforming Chicago from a swampy outpost to one of America’s greatest cities. The goals of the park are to celebrate Chicago’s heritage as a canal town, reclaim and restore the natural environment, create an outdoor educational laboratory for Chicago youth, provide a green oasis in one of Chicago’s most dense urban areas, and offer rare river-edge access for passive recreational use.

Designed by nationally recognized environmental artist Michael Singer, the concept plan for the park intertwines history, nature and art elements to illuminate the stories of the I&M Canal and create a series of vantage points for discovery, learning, rest and reconnecting with nature. Park plantings will have a naturalized look and include native plans, trees and ground cover. The park will be fully accessible and informative for diverse groups including adults and families who fish, canoe, or come to enjoy the outdoors, community groups planning a get-together, and students and youth groups investigating the park for educational purposes.

To help ensure the park’s educational programs are in full swing when the park is completed, in the fall of 1999 the Association launched a two-year pilot program to create educational tools that support use of Canal Origins Park as an outdoor learning laboratory. Today, 31 teachers representing multiple grade levels and disciplines from 18 Chicago schools are involved in the program which includes teacher training, development and testing of lesson plans and field trip experiences. The program will result in a “tool box” of curricula, resource materials, and learning aids that can be disseminated citywide so that many more Chicago educators and youth can benefit from learning experiences at the park.

The Association has also worked with the arts community, Chicago Park District, and youth to devise a public-art model for creating interpretive panels to be installed at the park and a “heritage banner” program that would produce a changing exhibit of streetlight banners adjacent to the park. Youth organizations and cultural institutions are other partners with whom the Association hopes to work to develop the park’s potential as a resource for rich interdisciplinary learning experiences.

From the beginning, the heritage corridor program has been a private-sector initiative, starting in 1980 with the leadership of Openlands Project, a not-for-profit conservation organization that works in Chicago and northeastern Illinois. Openlands led the drive to create the 60-mile-long I & M Canal State Trail in the 1960s and early 70s. Active grassroots participation continues through the Friends of The I & M Canal National Heritage Corridor and other citizen committees and local organizations. The Canal Corridor Association (formerly Upper Illinois Valley Association) is an offshoot of Openlands Project and has provided strong leadership since it was formed in 1982. Due to concerns over increased environmental regulation and governmental control along a heavily industrialized transportation corridor, the initial reaction of industry to the heritage corridor concept ranged from healthy skepticism to total opposition. Several key business and civic leaders got involved in the early planning efforts, however, and reached out to their colleagues. Today the Canal Corridor Association counts among its board members representatives from some of the region’s largest industries, which have provided leadership, financial support and a variety of in-kind and technical assistance.

For preservationists, the heritage corridor concept offers a rare opportunity to extend traditional boundaries, build new coalitions, and broaden public awareness for the importance of cultural landscapes. As the heritage area movement gains popularity, however, many questions remain unanswered. How does a voluntary program guarantee resource protection? What is the appropriate role for the federal government? How can multiple themes and resources be interpreted in an integrated manner? What strategy is best for dealing with a complex management structure that relies on so many partners? The Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor is certainly not a panacea. While we have saved many significant cultural and natural resources since designation by Congress in 1984, we have also lost a number of important historic structures. And insensitive development continues to erode the unique character of the landscape.

Since designation, however, more than $ 130 million have been invested by state and local interests, public and private, in capital projects that meet the corridor’s goals. Along with this rebuilding of the infrastructure comes less quantifiable but equally important benefits – an ongoing regional dialogue and the regeneration of community spirit.

This presentation was adapted from an article written previously by Mr. Adelmann.

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