The Illinois River Encounter Unveiled
Some 15,500 years ago, a huge surge of glacial meltwater swept across Illinois. The result: The Illinois River and its broad floodplain—and a complex eco-system of which humans have long been a part. And that’s just the beginning of the fascinating story visitors to the Peoria Riverfront Museum will experience at The Illinois River Encounter.
At a press event on Oct. 15, the third in a series to unveil details of the planned museum, Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences President and CEO Jim Richerson shared the components of the museum’s Liberty Street Wing and introduced plans for The Illinois River Encounter, a major gallery in that wing. “Without the Illinois River, Peoria would not be Peoria,” he said. “It was the river that first drew native people to this area 12,000 years ago. And it is the river that continues to offer commercial and recreational opportunities today.”
Richerson represented the Museum Collaboration Group comprised of Lakeview, the Peoria Historical Society, Peoria Regional Museum Society, Peoria African American Hall of Fame Museum and Illinois High School Association. He spoke to supporters and press gathered at The Gateway Building on the Peoria riverfront, which overlooks the Illinois River and the seven-acre site of The Block—a development that will include the Peoria Riverfront Museum and the Caterpillar Experience.
Doug Blodgett, director of the Illinois River Program for the not-for-profit, member-supported Nature Conservancy, has been working extensively with museum designers and shared details of what The Illinois River Encounter will offer.
“The gallery will feature parallel, interactive exhibits,” Blodgett explained. One side, known as The Living River, will focus on the river’s natural history and habitats. The other side, The Working River, will highlight the changing human relationship to the river over the years.
“Moving through the gallery will have a feeling of traveling the river’s channel—through both time and space,” he added.
The Living River
In The Living River, visitors will experience a simulation of The Kankakee Torrent, the rushing glacial meltwaters that formed the Illinois, and view photos and samples of geological features it created. “To give you an idea of the power of that much water coming down this valley, some geologists think Starved Rock may have been created in just a few days,” Blodgett said.
A replica of an archaeological dig in the river’s floodplain will include artifacts from the aboriginal culture that settled here more than 12,000 years ago to reap the river’s many benefits. Among those objects is the Peoria Falcon, a 500-year-old embossed copper plate portraying a raptor, on long-term loan to Lakeview Museum from The Smithsonian Institution. “This artifact, likely part of a Native American warrior’s ceremonial headdress, was found in Peoria in 1859, not far from the site of The Block today,” he said.
Exhibits on the river’s three major ecosystems—bottomland forests, floodplain wetlands and backwater lakes—“will allow visitors to look at a habitat and find out what critters are there during what seasons of the year and during what life stages,” Blodgett explained. Interactive opportunities will include a chance to identify the river’s wide array of waterfowl speciesthrough photos and an extensive duck decoy collection.
A timeline of fishing on the river also will offer interactivity and artifacts, including footage of jumping carp, mounted specimens of native and invasive fish species and tools from the river’s once-thriving fish and mussel industries. “About 100 years ago, the Illinois River was the most productive inland commercial fishery in North America,” Blodgett said. “And we think recreational fishing put as much into the local economy as commercial fishing did.”
Farther along The Living River, A River Rat’s Shed will share the unique culture of people who made their living from the river and proudly called themselves “River Rats.” The shed will share artifacts—from groundhog traps and morel mushrooms to a johnboat and tar barrel for tarring nets—to replicate how such families lived and worked.
The Working River
“The Working River will focus on how we have changed the Illinois River over the centuries, developing it as a channel for transportation and commerce,” said Steve Jaeger, executive director of the Heart of Illinois Regional Port District, which oversees river commerce for six local counties.
“If you think it’s strange that the Nature Conservancy and a port authority could be marching in lockstep, think about how green barge transportation really is when it’s managed well with the watershed and the ecosystem that surrounds it,” Jaeger said. “One fully loaded hopper barge displaces 35 trucks off the highway or the equivalent of 15 railcars.”
Today the Illinois River is “home to 350-plus privately owned terminals which generate jobs and bring investment into the region,” Jaeger said, noting the wide array of cargo—including an amazing amount of agricultural products grown in the region—shipped through these terminals.
The Working River will explore canals and locks, tracing the use of these engineering marvels. “The first, the Illinois & Michigan Canal, opened in 1862 and featured 15 locks through which mules and horses would tow barges. It joined Lake Michigan with the Mississippi, effectively connecting the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico,” Jaeger shared. Other canals and lock systems followed, ultimately creating a continuous navigation route 9 feet deep and at least 300 feet wide, ushering in the era of the modern barge.
Interactive opportunities will allow visitors to experience what it’s like to pilot a towboat pushing a series of barges, as well as control the flooding of the river in a simulation of downtown Peoria, affect the flow of a miniature river through functional locks and dams and observe the impact of levees on the river channel and floodplain use.
The River as Highway also pays homage to the 30 bridges spanning the Illinois River, from state-of-the-art suspension bridges to small, historic wooden ones. “A replica of one of them will span the gallery,” Jaeger noted, “literally and figuratively connecting The Working River with Tomorrow’s River environment of The Living River.”
Tomorrow’s River
That look at the future of the Illinois River will include information on the efforts of conservation groups to restore the river’s natural ecology, including a display showing the progress and goals—and perhaps a live webcam feed—of the Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon floodplain restoration project, one of the largest in the country.
“Getting people thinking about the future of the river is one of the important goals of The Illinois River Encounter,” Blodgett said. “We see Tomorrow’s River as a culmination of your walk down the channel, trying to strengthen our constituency in the area for restoration and proper management of the Illinois River.”
To encourage learning, The Illinois River Encounter will feature “booklets designed for children and their accompanying adults filled with simple, fun activities related directly to the exhibits,” Jaeger noted. Teachers will have access to the booklets as they plan field trips for their classes.
In addition, The Illinois River Encounter will feature an adjacent River Science Lab. The lab will feature hands-on activities, including a boat interactive where kids can try floating different types of boats to see which create less turbulence and therefore contribute less to erosion and sedimentation problems.