Wolf Point — The River Splits
The birthplace of Chicago, where the river splits three ways.
Key facts
- The river's three branches meet here
- One of Chicago's earliest settled spots
- Site of the town's first taverns & ferry
- The Chicago River was reversed in 1900
- The Y-shape appears on the city flag
Narration transcript
Look all around you now, on both sides, because we are arriving at one of the most important spots in the whole city, Wolf Point. This is where the Chicago River splits into three, with the main river meeting its north and south branches to form a giant letter Y. That Y-shape is so central to Chicago that it appears as a symbol on the city's flag and on buildings all over town. This is essentially the birthplace of Chicago. In the 1820s and 30s, before there was a big city here, this little point of land had some of the settlement's very first taverns, a trading post, and a ferry crossing. It was the bustling heart of a tiny frontier town. Now here is an amazing fact kids find hard to believe: the Chicago River used to flow the wrong way, dumping the city's waste into Lake Michigan, which was also its drinking water. So in 1900, engineers pulled off one of the greatest feats in history and actually reversed the river, forcing it to flow backward, away from the lake. The water we are floating on is literally running uphill from where nature intended. Take a good look around this three-way meeting of the waters.