Union Stock Yards - History

History

Before construction, tavern owners provided pastures and care for cattle herds waiting to be sold. With the spreading service of railroads, stockyards were created in and around the city. In 1848, small stockyards were scattered throughout the city along various rail lines. There was a confluence of reasons necessitating consolidation of the stockyards: westward expansion of railroads, causing great commercial growth in a Chicago that evolved into a major railroad center; the Mississippi River blockade during the Civil War that closed the north-south river trade route; the influx of meat packers and livestock to Chicago. To consolidate operations, the Union Stock Yards were built on swampland south of the city. A consortium of 9 railroad companies (hence the "Union" name) acquired a 320-acre (1.3 km2) swampland area in southwest Chicago for $100,000 in 1864. The stockyards were connected to the city's main rail lines by 15 miles (24 km) of track. Eventually, the 375-acre (1.52 km2) site had 2300 separate livestock pens in addition to hotels, saloons, restaurants, and offices for merchants and brokers. Led by Timothy Blackstone, a founder and the first president of the Union Stock Yards and Transit Company, "The Yards" experienced tremendous growth. Processing two million animals yearly by 1870, the number had risen to nine million by 1890. Between 1865 and 1900, approximately 400 million livestock were butchered within the confines of the Yards. By the start of the 20th century the stockyards employed 25,000 people and produced 82 percent of the domestic meat consumption. In 1921, the stockyards employed 40,000 people. Two thousand of these worked directly for the Union Stock Yard & Transit Co. and the rest worked for companies such as meatpackers who had plants in the stockyards. By 1900, the 475-acre (1.92 km2) stockyard contained 50 miles (80 km) of road, and had 130 miles (210 km) of track along its perimeter. At its largest size, The Yards covered nearly 1 square mile (3 km2) of land, from Halsted Street to Ashland Avenue and from 39th (now Pershing Rd.) to 47th Streets.

At one time, 500,000 US gallons (2,000 m3) a day of Chicago River water was pumped into the stockyards. So much stockyard waste drained into the South Fork of the river that it came to bear the name Bubbly Creek due to the gaseous products of decomposition. The creek bubbles to this day. When the City permanently reversed the flow of the Chicago River in 1900, the intent was to prevent the Stock Yards' waste products along with other sewage from flowing into Lake Michigan and contaminating the City's drinking water.

The meatpacking district was served between 1908 and 1957 by a short Chicago 'L' line with several stops, devoted primarily to the daily transport of thousands of workers and even tourists to the site. The line was constructed when the City of Chicago forced the removal of surface trackage on 40th Street.