PIONEER HUNTERS OK 1 HE K:aNKA[CP:E 

 tenaciously to that teaching. Up to a quarter 

 of a century ago any mention of the Kankakee 

 Swamps called up visions of a region of limit- 

 less extent of swamps and marshes, uninhabited 

 and desolate, a country always associated with 

 tales of suffering and death, of unfriendly sav- 

 ages and wild animals. For years this country 

 was passed over by hunters and prospectors 

 and was considered worthless, but the marvel- 

 ous transformation which has taken place in the 

 last three decades in the land of silence and 

 sunshine, furnishes one of the most interesting 

 and inspiring pages in the history of our great 

 Kankakee development. The Kankakee swamp 

 is vanishing from the map. its boundaries have 

 shrunken and it is no longer presenting a for- 

 midable barrier to the growth and progress of 

 northwestern Indiana. There was at that ti.me 

 several hundred thousand acres of this water- 

 soaked, craw-fish country that has been re- 

 claimed by means of dredging, that are now 

 producing bountiful harvests. Every year hun- 



17.S 



