OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 



13 



And in issuing this book by the Forest Preserve Commis- 

 sion it is the hope of the commissioners that it may be the means 

 of awakening the people of Chicago and Cook County to the 

 fact that this most wonderful story by Nature is spread out be- 

 fore them. 



LILY POND (SALT CREEK). 



If that one thing is accomplished the purpose of this publi- 

 cation will not have been conceived in vain. It will have brought 

 to the people of this community the message that these great 

 primeval forests that were the battlegrounds and hunting grounds 

 of prehistoric Cook County are the recreation grounds for the 

 twentieth century citizenship. 



And with that accomplished we have accomplished the ends 

 sought by the lawmakers of Illinois who conceived the idea of 

 the Forest Preserve District preservation of the forest land 

 for the people, protection of the last fragments of Nature's most 

 wonderful handiwork so fast giving way before the crushing 

 heel of Industry and Commerce. 



Historians generally go back to where civilization first showed 

 its hand and beyond that they are helpless to do other than con- 

 jecture and theorize. Historians attempting to tell us the story 

 of Cook County have been no different. 



The recognized history tells how Joliet and Marquette, those 

 French explorers never to be forgotten, braved all the dangers 

 of the Illinois River, banked with savage redskins, to visit the 



