DRAINING THE SWAMPS 

 strength of this statement he traded thousands 

 of needles to the squaws and the wives of the 

 vyhitc hunters, in exchange he gave them a 

 needle for a rat skin. This vast region that 

 was considered worthless has made many a 

 man a small fortune. The best figures obtained 

 for (he am )U':( of furs caught and sold by the 

 hunters and. trappers of the Kankakee Swamps 

 betv/^een the years of '18 50 and 1900 was ap- 

 proxlmatciy three million, seven hundred and 

 iiily thousand dollars, an average of seventy-five 

 thoLisand per year. Whenever there was a bill 

 up before the legislature for an appropriation for 

 the drainage of th2 swamp lands there was al- 

 ways enough to oppose it and cause its defeat 

 rip,c\ yet the water soaked lands weie doomed. 

 Finally ihe fatal day came. A big dredging ma- 

 chine was set to v/ork In the river a few miles 

 above f3a urn's Bridge and excavated a great 

 ditch of one hundred and fifty feet in width 

 through the dense forest. Hence the new Kan- 

 kakee f^iver. The game had become almost 



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