OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 



85 



PARKING SPACE, THATCHER PARK. 



As historical society writers have said of Mrs. Rager, she 

 lives almost entirely independent of the outside world on her 

 estate. She says she has never needed medicine other than the 

 sights and sounds of the 'river and the forests of elms, pines 

 and maples that tower above her cottage which, buried in the 

 trees, is surrounded by natural grassy lawns and shrubbery. 



South of Irving Park Boulevard one conies to the river's 

 intersection with the old Indian Boundary Line which de- 

 scribed a zone about the mouth of the Chicago River. Under 

 the treaty of 1816 the Indians relinquished all this territory to 

 the white man and access to the lake could only be had north 

 of that line. 



On almost the exact course of that dead line for Indians 

 there was later constructed a railroad, a right-of-way since 

 abandoned. That historical strip of land running northwest 

 from the river into the city at Norwood Park has been acquired 

 for future development as a drive that will connect the pre- 

 serves on the Desplaines and Chicago Rivers, diverting traffic 

 from the city drives. 



In the establishment of the historical points about this re- 

 markable preserve the District officers have only started. It 



