Recreation
"Forever Free and Clear"
The lake is like an "escape from dullness. . .The sun rose out of it, the day began there; it was like an open door that nobody could shut. . .You had only to look at the lake, and you knew you would soon be free," said Willa Cather of Lake Michigan. Daniel Burnham ensured that the lakefront would be "forever frree and clear" in his Plan for Chicago of 1909. It is unique among world cities to find no industrial businesses along the lake for the length of the city. For many Chicagoans, visits to the beaches and lakefront parks is their only connection to Chicago's rich maritime past.
A Lakefront for the People
Chicago’s 29 miles of open and free lakefront can be credited to the city’s visionary civic leaders.
Thanks to the foresight of catalogue mogul Ward, in 1890, the town’s lakefront was ruled to be “Public Ground – A Common to Remain Forever Open and Free of any Buildings, or Other Obstruction whatever.” Ward launched a lonely and expensive fight to keep the downtown lakefront free of buildings. He did not win every battle but he did prevail often enough that Grant Park developed as a vast formal park.
Chicago-to-Mackinac Race
The highlight of the boating season in the Windy City is the Chicago-to-Mackinac Race. From its humble beginnings in 1898, the race has become a gala occasion bringing together yachtsmen from all over the world. The 331-mile race is one of the oldest and longest cruising races in the world.
Excursion Ships and the World’s Columbian Exposition
One of the most popular passenger routes was across the lake from Chicago to the Michigan ports of South Haven and Glen Haven. Excursion ships brought tourists for weekend visits and returned with cargoes of fresh fruit from the orchards of southwestern Michigan.
For more than 20 years, the largest and most elegant of Chicago’s excursion steamers was the Christopher Columbus. Built in 1893 in the record time of just over three months, the steamer was 362 feet long with five thousand-horsepower engines that allowed her to cruise at a speed of 18 miles per hour.
The Christopher Columbus was brought into service in time to accommodate the crowd of Midwesterners who thronged to the World’s Columbia Exposition. During the fair she ferried visitors from downtown Chicago to the fairgrounds in Jackson Park. She was capable of carrying five thousand people at one time, and during the fair she carried more than two million passengers.
Yachting and Recreational Boating
On any given summer day, thousands of boaters head to Lake Michigan for sailing, cruising and yacht racing. Today, seven harbors shelter over five thousand boats. Organized boating began in 1875 with the establishment of the Chicago Yacht Club. It is the oldest yacht club on Lake Michigan. The Columbia and Jackson Park Yacht Clubs followed later in the 19th century and helped to pioneer racing and cruising off Chicago. By the 1940s, there were eight private yacht clubs along the Chicago shore.
Fine yachts were built and launched at Grebe’s Yacht Yard, located on the North Branch of the Chicago River near Riverview Amusement Park.
The Burnham Plan
Because of Daniel Burnham’s plan for Chicago in 1909, the beaches and parks of the lakefront have been Chicago’s front yard for more than a century. It took the national tragedy of the Great Depression to secure the federal funding that made it possible to partially implement Burnham’s plans for the north and south lakefronts. Without those massive construction projects during the 1930s, large portions of the lakefront would be in private hands. Today, these park lands are most Chicagoan’s only link to the city’s maritime character.
