In the early nineteenth century, before railroad construction was fully underway, canals were the most important infrastructure projects. Every state in the Great Lakes region spent enormous sums to build them on the assumption that they were essential to economic growth. The Illinois and Michigan Canal had possibly the most ambitious goal of any of the canals in the region; to enable freight to move from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River and then into the Gulf of Mexico.

This study of the entire project to build the Illinois and Michigan Canal was written by a professor of economics at Butler College. This volume was produced for the Illinois Centennial by the Chicago Historical Society.