366 OCEAN TO OCEAN ON HORSEBACK, 



Chekajo River, emptying into the southwest end of 

 Lake Michigan, where a fort formerly stood." This 

 extinguisliment of the Indian title in 1795, being in 

 the nature of a quit-claim deed for lands, is some- 

 times called the earliest real estate transaction in 

 Chicago. 



Thus, she who was to become the " Queen City " of 

 the West, made her debut into the Union, where, 



possibly, she may yet, 



" The fairest of her daughters,** 



rule supreme. 



In the midst of all the down-town rush, at a point 

 where noise and confusion scarcely cease, one notices 

 upon a decidedly modern building a white stone tablet 

 which informs the stranger that it was upon this spot 

 Fort Dearborn stood — the oldest landmark that re- 

 mained to tell the tale of the wilderness. In 1804 two 

 block-houses were built here and a subterranean pas- 

 sage made from the parade to the river, the whole sur- 

 rounded by a picket and furnished with three pieces 

 of light artillery, the object being " to supply the 

 Indian wants and control the Indian policy." The 

 tribes of Pottawatomies overran the country round 

 about and with the little group of French and Cana- 

 dian settlers made the life of the isolated post. In 

 1809 Tecumseh marked it out as one of his objects of 

 vengeance, but fortunately other schemes occupied his 

 attention, and it remained in comparative security un- 

 til the war of 1812. Then, when all the country was 

 disturbed and the Indians were making mischief 

 everywhere, the commander of Fort Dearborn w^as be- 

 trayed by the Pottawatomies and every vestige of a 

 eettlement destroyed. 



