DRAIN' ING I HE SWAMPS 



it ran near one hundred and fifty miles, under- 

 mining big trees along its banl^s that would tum- 

 ble down in the river and wash out great holes 

 in one place and fill up in another, making it a 

 slow, sluggish stream, In high water it would 

 spread out over the swamps and marshes for 

 miles on each side of the river, Since the con- 

 struction of the big ditch the water is all confined 

 to this channel. If some of these swamp land 

 speculators could return to this region they 

 find what they were looking for fourty or fifty 

 years ago. The large land owners such as 

 Cass 6 Singleton, Gifford, of Kankakee City. 

 Illinois, and Nelson Aorris, the Chicago meat 

 packer, and many others who owned large 

 tracts of swamp lands were strong in favor of 

 draining whilst many others were opposed to 

 the movement, especially the huuters and trap- 

 pers who said that it would ruin their business, 

 that the Kankakee Swamps were more valuable 

 for their furs than they were for their agricul- 

 tural purposes. The money that was brought 



186 



