Skokie Lagoons, 2024.
The Skokie Marsh
Since the earliest settlers arrived, Winnetka has been touted for its natural beauty. The Skokie marsh was particularly enchanting with its picturesque marshland and rich wildlife.
While the marsh offered both tranquility and entertainment, it was clear from the beginning that it also presented problems. The marshland laid lower than the village center, causing floods in residential areas during heavy rainfall. It also provided the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos.
Flood waters from the marsh inundate a Winnetka street, 1924.
In 1864, settlers dug several drainage channels, hoping that drying the land would make it useful for grazing and farming. Unfortunately, early attempts to “improve” the land had unforeseen consequences. Peat deposits regularly self-ignited during dry spells, filling the air with acrid smoke and sparking several house fires. Subsequent attempts to drain the marsh proved unsuccessful as well.
Flooded ditch runs through the marsh, c. 1920s.
Village Engineer Frank Windes was well aware of the problems posed by the marsh and the failed attempts to solve them. He had loved it as a boy and was disheartened by plans to drain it. In 1909, he created the first plan to turn the marsh into a system of lagoons and presented it to Daniel Burnham and the Chicago Plan Commission. It wasn’t until the 1930s, however, that his vision for the lagoons came to fruition.
Development Scheme Skokie Lagoons, 1933.
Creating the Lagoons
After decades of failed attempts to manage the marsh, in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt approved the creation of the Skokie Lagoons as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) project.
Turning the Skokie marsh into a system of lagoons was the CCC’s biggest project. While the idea for the lagoons originated with Frank Windes, it was Winnetkan Harold Ickes that ultimately made it happen. As Secretary of the Interior, Ickes had considerable sway and despite some local opposition to the project, work on the marsh was underway less than a year after the CCC was created.
The scope of the project required thousands of workers who lived in temporary barracks known as Camp Skokie Valley. While the work was hard, many CCC enrollees found themselves better fed and healthier after months in the camp. In their limited downtime, enrollees played sports or attended practical skills classes at “Skokie Valley University.”
In the end, the Skokie Lagoons took nine years to complete. The thousands of CCC enrollees who worked on the project collectively moved four million cubic yards of earth, planted 120,000 trees, and transformed the beautiful yet problematic marsh into the system of lagoons that has been enjoyed by millions since its completion in 1942.
View images from the exhibit in the gallery below.
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