Naperville History
  • (Towsley) maps 1, 220, 254. photos 70, 90 1673 Marquette & Joliet blazed trails
    1780 Du Pazhe French trapper/trader at fork of 2 branches
    1820 Pre-emption Act 80 acres @ $1.25/acre
    1831 Bailey Hobson, Joseph Naper settlements
    1835 Saw mill & log dam, 1840 grist mill, woodland cut for timber
    p. 93: Burlington Park lake dammed for boating , skate in winter; ice (Naperville SUN) p. 66 picture of dam 1890 Fawell Dam now south of McDowell Forest Preserve.
  • (Higgins) p.38 Pre-emption House built of oak, walnut clapboard, maple floor, white pine interior trim George Martin (brick & tile magnate): Martin-Mitchell mansion 1832 Black Hawk War: Sauk chief and Fox tribes fought US at Bad Axe River, WI. Pottawatomie chiefs Waubonsie, Shabbona, Aptakisic (Half Day). Waubonsie village in Aurora. (Makers of Fire) blood brothers to Ottawa, Chippewa. Illinois dominant in 17th century. Iroquois, Sauk, Kickapoo, Pott. Chicago Ave: Buffalo trail Ogden Ave: Ottawa trail
  • p. 57 1850 Plank (toll) Road: bur & white oak planks, follows Chicago-Galena stage coach line over swamps. East of Naperville branch to Warrenville & St Charles, to Oswego & Sycamore
  • killed by Northwestern RR to Wheaton (Rock Island line). Chicago/Burlington/Quincy 1864.
  • (Naperville SUN p. 121)Spur rail line from Chicago, Burlington and Quincy line along Ewing St and Jackson Ave carried coal to Naperville Electric dept and (Riverwalk 2000) stones from quarries, removed 1960. Ice from river for cooling, stone for foundation & barns. Saw mill & flour mill. Spring water fill quarries, pumped.
  • (Higgins) p. 35: hawthorn branches May Day

    Riverwalk History

  • 45 acres bought in 1931 from the Fred Von Oven Estate (Naperville Stone Company) by 33 residents (Judge Win Knoch)for $16,500, reimbursed by city 1932. Centennial Park June 6, 1931
  • Roosevelt Works Progress Administration funded pavement, falls
  • Became dumping ground by 70's, Park District.
  • RW developed 1981 to celebrate Naperville’s Sesquicentennial
    (Higgins) 45 acres park & forest preserve, 80 acres total, map p.18. Knoch, Jim Moser
    City Hall built with imported Italian marble, sinking because it was built too close to the river.
  • (Naperville Farmers' Riverwalk Committee) Farmers' monument: wood beam walking plow 1897
  • (Riverwalk 2000) Horse Trough fountain from Chicago & Washington
  • (2000): extension to Hillside Road; Fredenhagen Park.

    Geology

  • (Riverwalk 2000) Quarries closed due to water seeping into quarry
  • (Towsley) Von Oven & Boecker: Naperville Stone Co. 1884-late 1890
    Big quarry (pond) owned by Dolese and Shepard ~1890 (Naper Settlement) owned by George Martin. Ceased 1904: sold stone and gravel after Chicago fire 1871
  • Von Ovens also owned Napervile Tile and Brick Works with George Martin:
    (Hackette) "The clay found in inexhaustible supply is of a peculiarly fine quality".
      Mammoth at Blackwell was discovered while digging for clay for lake and Naperville Nurseries
  • Limestone and dolomite were deposited during Silurian Period (400 MBP), when Illinois was part of Laurentia and situated just south of the paleoequator, and was covered by a shallow tropical sea. Marine animals with calcium carbonate shells or skeletons, such as corals, brachiopods, peleopods (clams), cephalopods (squid-like) crinoids (sea lily), and trilobites proliferated and formed reefs extending to Niagara Falls. Their remains formed the Niagaran Series dolomite (Joliet, Sugar Run - Joliet or Athens marble fro Joliet-Lemont - and Racine Formations). Sugar Run limestone tends to exfoliate, replaced by Indiana's Bedford limestone for building material. Thornton Quarry is Racine Formation, current use mainly for crushed aggregate for construction (concrete).
  • (Higgins) Stone buildings: Old Main @ North Central 1870, old Nichols Library 1898
    (Naper Settlement) Martin Mitchell Mansion foundation
    Millennium Tower: limestone is simulated precast concrete
  • Ice age average 10 MY: mid Precambrian, end Precambrian, Permian Pleistocene epoch (Quaternary period) 2 MBP, Wisconsin 75 KBP
  • Illinois state soil (Aug/2001): Drummer silty clay loam: 60-70% silt 30-40% clay 0-20% sand 40-60 inches of loess and underlying glacial drift
    (Reklau) north side: Grundelein silty clay loam; south side: Sawmill silty clay loam.
  • Jefferson Ave bridge: The land slopes up sharply to the east. This marks the western edge of the West Chicago Moraine (in the Valparaiso Morainic system) left by the Wisconsinan glaciation. Legacy from the glacier include gravel in the moraines, loess and glacial till (glacial drift - unlithified sediment - average about 100 feet deep).
    To west is Manhattan-Minooka Groundmoraine.
    (Hackette) Granite basement below 4k feet. 3 layers of Sandstone: Mt. Simon > 1800 ft, Ironton-Galesville 1200-1500 ft, St. Peter 600-900 ft. Then shale, dolomite, glacial deposits.
    4 wells in dolomite bedrock, 1 in sandstone (cracks and narrow openings store ground water.
    Sand and gravel deposits may also hold ground water.
  • Ground relief in Naperville is 180 feet. West Branch avg flow 50 cubic feet/sec. Melting of glacier left pebbly clay; meltwater deposted sand and gravel in West Branch valley.

    DuPage River

  • (DNR) 1990: DuPage River basin home to 10% IL population, 36 in. rainfall, headwaters in Hanover Park & Bloomington, fed by springs
  • (Nier) Park District: stock Northern Pike to control Bluegill 2000, plant Lizard's Tail, Blue Flag 2001. (Leonard) FPDDC: Bass in Class release small-mouth bass; tags fall off.
  • (Cons Found) Riverbank Stabilization:
  • Channelization: fast flow erodes sides, hard solutions: steel sheets, concrete riprap, cement bunkes, wooden beams. 1980's soft soil bioengineering methods. A-jacks: cement halves 45 lb ea, oriented same direction: trench stabilize base of bank. Fiber dam material in void prevent soil migration, earth backfilling. Fish lunkers (wood or recycled plastics): fish can hide & lay eggs; Coconut fiber blanket - biodegradable. semi-permeable membrane covered w concrete riprap, top soil; native vegetation. Arb: coconut logs, straw mat covered by degradable nylon (catch snakes) or coconut fiber mat (degrades too fast).

    Biology

  • Division Ginkgophyta: late Triassic, 200MBP Wood lacks axial parenchyma Dichotomously branched veins, no central vein (midrib) dicots Most died Tertiary 25MBP G. adiantoides Pliocene Epoch 10MBP Flagellated sperm like ferns, swim to ovules
  • Division Coniferophyta: Triaasic/Jurassic 170 MBP Order Coniferales, Order Taxales Ovaries not enclosed in ovules, pollen land directly on ovules, in liquid secreted by cone, then absorbed
  • Division Magnoliophyta: Cretaceous 140 MBP Sperm descend in pollen tube
  • Division Spermatophyta: classes Gymnospermae and Angiospermae Angeion Sperma: vessel seed Gymnos: naked seed
  • Photosynthesis: NaOH absorb CO2, NA bicarbonate release CO2
    6 CO2 + 12 H2O -> C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6 H2O

    Flora

  • Plant list

  • Plant info

    • Fauna

  • Gray Squirrel introduced to Europe, displace European Red Squirrels. Gray squirrels strip walnut husk before burying; aged shell easier to gnaw. European walnuts smaller; European squirrels smaller. Squirrel brain is size of walnut, rear ankles can be turned. Fox Squirrel more often on ground.
  • Anas platyrhynchos Mallard: Feral ducks of domestic origin. Seasonally monogamous. Expanding into Black Duck territory: habitat loss (pot holes?).
    Only females quack. males molt in early summer to eclipse plumage, then late summer molt to breeding plumage, no dark patch on bill.
    Eat hard seeds and grains, shoots of sedge, grass, aq. veg, aq. inv, snails, arrowhead tubers (duck potato). Poisoned by lead pellets (1400/bird=1/2 lb), banned by FWS for waterfowl hunting 1991 by NWF.
    Ducks precocial: No nestling phase.
    Dabbling (marsh) duck: tip up, spring directly from water; Pintail, A. Wigeon, Blue&Green-Winged Teal, Northern Shoveler:
    Diving: Canvasback, Redhead: small wings, running takeoff
    Perching: Wood Duck, sharp claws nest in cavities Eiders: sea diving ducks, dense down feathers Sea ducks Mergansers Stiff-tailed Whistling