Skokie Lagoons: A Wild Swamp
Illustration: National Park Service technical drawing of the Skokie Lagoons project, 1933
Today the Skokie Lagoons seem like a completely natural environment. In reality they were transformed from a wild swamp into a series of lagoons in the 1930’s. Learn how local workers constructed man-made dams and dikes to create the lagoons and see how this unique nature preserve has changed over time. Learn More!
Swamp Secrets
Discover more about the secret history of the Skokie Lagoons in an article from our Gazette archives. Click Here!
Watch Videos: View clips about the development and transformation of the Skokie Lagoons from the Documentary Winnetka Story: The History of Winnetka and the North Shore
Watch Part I
Watch Part II
See Drone footage of how the Skokie Lagoons look today (Drone Credit: Maxwell Ebeling): Watch!
Photo of Skokie Lagoons 2008
Winnetka Future 2040
By Holly Marihugh, April 3, 2020
In 1921, Winnetka pushed forward a progressive engine of change in comprehensive village planning. Edward H. Bennett of Chicago led a team to chart a direction for the village on issues from railroads to lakefront development, traffic patterns to utilities, playgrounds to public buildings, and much more.
Bennett had gained fame as a respected co-author of the 1909 Burnham Plan of Chicago along with Daniel Burnham. He brought that vision and expertise to Winnetka, when the idea of town planning was novel. Read More…
Illustration of the proposed Village Center from the 1921 Winnetka Plan