The Des Plaines River is a river that flows southward for 133 miles (214 km) through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois in the U.S. Midwest, eventually meeting the Kankakee River west of Channahon to form the Illinois River, a tributary of the Mississippi River.
The river provided a transportation route and portage for native Americans, who revealed to early explorers how to traverse waterways of the Des Plaines watershed to travel from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi Valley. The river's name derives from the period of French exploration and colonization in the New World.
Read more about Des Plaines River: Course and Character, Etymology, Des Plaines River Bridge, Flood Control Projects, Recreation
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)