Aukiki River Festival

08/22/2025

In “Pioneer Hunters of the Kankakee” J. Lorenzo Werich dedicated one chapter to “Draining of the Swamp.” To Werich the Kankakee Marsh was a paradise that man destroyed for the sake of short term gains. Born in 1862 Werich was able to tell the story of the pioneer hunters and trappers of the Kankakee and also lived long enough to witness its destruction through channelization. What was once known as the Everglades of the North was reduced to a 97 mile drainage ditch.

Werich wrote that in his youth, for the uninformed, “any mention of the Kankakee Swamps called up visions of a region of limitless extent of swamps and marshes, uninhabited and desolate, a country always associated with tales of suffering and death.” Today we know that a marsh is an engine for water purification and the habitat for a wide range of wildlife in such great numbers that it was the natural home for Native Americans soon after the last glacier retreated. Later it would attract the trapper and hunter for its seemingly endless bounty. The pioneer farmer would follow establishing homesteads and settlements throughout the marsh high grounds. Then came the greedy land speculators and corrupt government officials that only saw the Kankakee Marsh as a worthless land ripe for ravage.

Werich wrote: “all great movements have their beginning. So it was with the drainage of the Kankakee Swamps.” In the 1850 the U. S. Congress passed the Swamp Land Act that ceded swamplands to the states they rest in. In 1853 Indiana made its first attempt to drain Beaver Lake, which at that time was the largest lake in Indiana. By 1880 it was gone. The state plan was that land sold after “reclamation” was to be sold and the proceeds to be used for infrastructure. Very little money ever made it back to Indianapolis.

For Werich the draining of the Kankakee marsh was more than the loss of one of America’s greatest natural resources. It was the loss of an entire way of life for all that preceded him. It also necessitated removal of the Native American from the Kankakee Valley. Indiana would never be able to drain the swamp as long as the Native Americans held claim to any land within the marsh proper.

In 1881 Werich journeyed to the reservation where the Pottawatomie were resettled in Kansas “that I might be able to learn more of the early history of their hunting grounds on the Kankakee River.”

After a lengthy visit Werich returned home, forever changed by his visit.
What Werich learned transformed his views and created a special kinship for him with the Native Americans and their way of life.

He later wrote: “As I was about to leave one of the old warriors rose to his feet, saying in a low, sad tone: “Oh gone are the days of my youth and memories of my people and the beauties of our beautiful land are forever buried. My Father and myself are forgotten, and the Land of Liberty shall know us no more. When I visit the scenes of my boyhood where 1 played with the pebbles and sand, where years before played the little papoose with his canoe and paddle, and when I recall some of my early adventures of hunting and fishing, the most pleasant recollections of all was my boyhood days at my island home on the Kankakee.”

08/15/2025

08/08/2025

Porter County is Part of Gen. Lew Wallace Story

By: William Wallace The Stroller

The story of Gen. Lew Wallace continues to attract nation-wide attention since the new picture of “Ben-Hur” is sweeping the county a few years ago.

At Crawfordsville the Ben-Hur Museum at the Lew Wallace studio is attracting more visitors than ever before.

Porter County is a part of that story, for the General maintained a vacation site and a houseboat on the Kankakee for 43 years.

He first came here when he was a state senator in 1858. He and Samuel Wilson, his law partner, and two or three prominent politicians came from Indianapolis on a duck hunting trip—and to have a secret conference about Indiana politics.
Lt. Wallace, then 36 years old, had been elected to the senate by the Democratic party, but as the slave issue developed, he was entirely out of sympathy with Douglas, and wanted to switch to the Republican party, then only four years old.
Never bound by strict political ties, he had become convinced that Lincoln was the proper man for President. It was this realignment of political interests that first brought him to the Kankakee.

Hunting Ducks was a secondary consideration, but the site, the vast swamp areas, and the charm of the whole region prompted him to determine upon establishing a permanent hunting cabin some place in the vicinity.

There was already an Indianapolis Gun Club, Terre Haute Hunting lodge, and a Rockville Sportsmen’s club there. Two years later he came again, bringing, according to his autobiography, a Heinmann Sportsmen’s tent. with canvas floor, his fishing outfit, a gun, and a small camp stove and cot.

He set his tent up beside a rough board shanty about 100 feet back from the river near Eaton’s Ferry and upon his departure he stored his outfit at Eaton’s
Then come the Civil War, when he was appointed Adjutant General for Indiana, and helped Gov. Morton get the Enlistment Machinery in operation. As soon as the state’s war program was well organized he resigned his position and, having been promoted to colonel, he took the 11th Indiana Infantry into the conflict.

His Crawfordsville company of Zouaves, called the Montgomery Guards. was a spectacular part of the Eleventh, and they attracted nation-wide attention for almost two years. The newspaper publicity and a number of illustrated articles in Harper’s Weekly, antagonized the West Point Clique in the army.

After the bottle of Shiloh, Wallace, then a major-general, war accused unjustly of having, been “slow and dilatory” in bringing his regiment to the rescue at Pittsburgh Landing. After a number of undercover manipulations, the West Pointers took the Eleventh piecemeal into distant fields, and soon Lew Wallace found himself without a regiment, and “was put on the shelf” pending the issuance of further orders.
It was jealous trickery, but it was effective. The idle major general came again to the Kankakee “to think things over” and let his friends at court get to President Lincoln and have him recalled to active service.

For three weeks he hunted, fished, worried and hoped and then one day a rider from Valparaiso came tearing up to the ferry. His wife at Crawfordsville had telegraphed that “New orders are here. Return at once.”

Gov. Morton and President Lincoln were alarmed to know that in the heat of war small caliber jealousy had put a successful major general “on the shelf” and he was immediately promoted to general and sent to Cincinnati with a staff of 140 officers and 12.000 men to protect that city from impending raid.

From that day on until 1867 Lew Wallace was in the midst of war’s turmoil, and in the military courts that tried and sentenced the Lincoln conspirators, and tried and convicted Capt. Henry Wirz, the cruel and inhuman commandant of Andersonville Prison.

After the war activities were over Gen. Wallace built a new home for his wife and son at Crawfordsville, but between spurts of activity in law he found time to come often to the Kankakee.

He bought a 40-acre tract in Jasper County, and a 20 acre tract in Section 13 in Pleasant Township in Porter county. Later he bought Lot 6 in the Griffith Land company’s plat in section 26 where he intended building a permanent hunting cabin.

In Writing of Gen. Lew Wallace Hubert Skinner said: “During the 43 years or more from 1858 to 1903 that Gen. Wallace was a frequent vacation visitor along the Kankakee he was just an old friend coming back time after time. He knew everybody along the river, and everybody knew him.

“River rats, trappers, guides, pushers and just ordinary home folks accepted him for his friendliness and his interest In the Kankakee. They made no “hero” of him, because of his fame as author, soldier and statesman, and this was just to his liking. His close associates were wealthy sportsmen who came once or twice a year to hunt, especially Ira Brainard, Henry Wainright, and members of the Pittsburgh Gun club.

He hiked over all the Kankakee traits with only a dug for company and showed up casualty at George Wilcox’s Boarding house for supper, with the rest of the guests. No one treated anybody else as though they were celebrities along the Kankakee. They were all simply Kankakee enthusiasts, and that was enough.

“The General never built his cabin on lot 6, for about that lime a new lumber barge, built to haul lumber down the river, was found unsatisfactory after one trip, and he conceived the idea of buying it and converting it Into a sort of floating cabin. There have been many boats on the Kankakee, but none ever attracted more attention than the q***r barge he devised.

He set up a framework of iron pipe and flanges and ordered from Chicago a great canvas square top tent to cover that frame. ‘The task of getting that canvas over the frame was a monumental labor and didn’t fit properly when it was on.
They took it off, changed the framework, and remade the cover. Mrs. William Morehouse cut out a number of windows in the side walls and put in mosquito bar coverings with the original canvas hemmed and fitted with cords to be used at night or in bad weather.

Later then detached the roof canvas from the sidewalls, so the walls could he rolled up like Cleopatra’s barges required. The barge was 10×37 feet and was divided into three ‘rooms’ of about equal size. One was a kitchen-Dining room and bunkhouse for the colored man who was the general’s cook amid man-of-all work; the middle section was a ‘sitting room’ and study; and the other end room was the general’s sleeping quarters.

“From all the neighbors,” said Mrs. Morehouse, “we gathered up unwanted tables, chairs and lumber for a bookcase. I’ve seen the general and Ira Brainard sawing and nailing and building ‘removable’ furniture in that canvas enclosure many a time. They were having a wonderful time.”

That fall another huge project was undertaken, the digging out of the high sandbank at Deep Bend beside the Pittsburgh Gun club house. The digging was to establish a negotiable slope to haul the barge up out of the water each fall and store it for the winter In a ‘dry dock’.

All the furniture was stored wherever anyone could find space in the gun club attic, in Wilcox’s wood-shed and In the old Eaton house – but that first year the house-boat, stripped of all its frame aid fixtures remained in the water. There weren’t enough teams and men and windlasses to haul the thing up.

That was the year A.P. Knott went over to a Chicago junk yard and bought some old iron rails and streetcar wheels, and a scrap iron for a “boat carriage and track” but that’s another story.

08/01/2025

In past years I used to give historical/ecological tours at the Collier Lodge site at Baum’s Bridge. Most of the tours was for Valparaiso University students. I begin the tour at the Collier Lodge with the historical background of the area and then walk through the bayou to the Kankakee River for the ecology part. During the history portion when I share the rich and famous that visited the Baum’s Bridge area. One question I would ask the students is who knows who Lew Wallace was. Most often the answer is a “high school in Gary.” I firmly believe that Lew Wallace is the most underappreciated and largely forgotten notable Hoosier that we of Indiana should know more about.

Wallace was born in 1827. His father, David Wallace, was the 6th governor of Indiana. Wallace served as a 2nd Lieutenant during the Mexican War and was a Major General during the Civil War. Because of his legal background he was appointed as a judge on the Abraham Lincoln assassination trial and was the presiding judge of the Captain Wirz Andersonville prison trial. In 1878 Wallace served as Governor of the New Mexico Territory, squelching the Lincoln County Wars. In 1881 he was appointed Minister to Turkey. While minister he developed a close friendship with the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II who was the ruler of the Ottoman Empire. When Wallace resigned as minister, because of the election of Grover Cleveland in 1884, he was offered a position by the Sultan which he declined. Wallace is best known as author of Ben-Hur. It was after President James Garfield read Ben-Hur and recognizing his knowledge of the Mid-East that he appointed Wallace minister.

At this point you’re probably wondering what the heck Wallace has to do with the Kankakee River. Well, he loved the Kankakee River! Even though he was raised on the Wabash, he loved the wonder and mystery of the Kankakee.

Old Timers agree that Wallace first came to the Kankakee River with a group of young hunters from Indianapolis in 1858. He owned a power launch and houseboat he named “The Thing” and steamed the Kankakee, mostly headquartering out of Baum’s Bridge. He was also frequently seen at English Lake in Starke County. Jim Collier stated that Wallace docked a “hundred yards south” of the Collier Lodge. We have reports that he dined regularly at the Collier Lodge.

Unless required by other duties Wallace was on the Kankakee River at least three times a year for the waterfowl migration season and pickerel fishing until 1894. By 1893 Wallace was experiencing some health problems with a growth in his nose. Lecturing and public speaking became more difficult for him. In 1904 Lew Wallace made his last visit to the Kankakee River at Baum’s Bridge and passed away on February 14, 1905. His son Henry continued to visit the Kankakee River at Baum’s Bridge until his death in 1926. Wallace’s houseboat was disassembled, and the material was used to build a cabin at Baum’s Bridge which remains standing to this day.

This posting image is of Lew Wallace and George Wilcox at Baum’s Bridge.

07/25/2025

In an earlier posting, I had excerpts from the Josiah Granger diary. I received lots of positive feedback! I have another diary written by George Wilcox who lived near Baum's Bridge in south Porter County. I would like to thank Sarah Miller for bringing the Wilcox diary to light and allowing it to be made public.

In a previous posting, about the Pittsburgh Gun Club, I introduced Wilcox as the caretaker and guide for the Pittsburgh. It was through this position that he developed a close relationship with the "Rich and Famous" of that club. To me Wilcox was a big fish in a small pond. Wilcox always considered himself a farmer. He supplemented his income by being a carpenter, trapper and hunting and fishing guide. Wilcox was much more than a simple farmer! He was able to acquire a fair amount of land near Baum's Bridge and became influential in south Porter County. Everybody seemed to know George and Kate.

The Wilcox diary covers January 1, 1916 to June 30, 1917. This was a watershed time for the Kankakee River. The dredges were beginning to drain the Kankakee marsh, thus ending a way of life for men like Wilcox. It also ended the Sportsmen Era of the Kankakee. The hunt clubs were being sold as recreational businesses and private homes.

Diaries are like time machines. They take us back to an earlier time and lets us read the thoughts of those who have come before us. There is so much to this diary that it will span several River Bits columns, each focusing on different aspects of its contents. This first will be about George and Kate Wilcox. I will leave the diary entries with original spelling and wording.

George Wilcox was born in Pennsylvania in 1850. As a small child the family moved to Lake County, Indiana. By 1875 the Wilcox family was living in Pleasant Township at the home of John Dutton. Catherine R. "Kate" Dutton was born in 1847 in Porter County to John and Azubah Dutton.

On April 15, 1877 George and Kate were married. They made their home in south Porter County, a short distance north of Baum's Bridge, where the village of Mayville once stood. George and Kate built their own hunting and fishing lodge— providing quarters for hunters and George serving as guide for their guests.

Originally, the Pittsburgh Gun Club members lodged in a private rail car near English Lake, parking it on a side rail for two-week hunts. They decided that if they could find a suitable spot where there were tall oak trees and high ground, they would build a club house. Ira Brainard and Harry Wainwright rowed downstream until they came to Baum's Bridge where they discovered the oaks and high ground. Looking for a place to lodge for the night they found the Wilcox home nearby. In 1878 the Pittsburgh Gun Club was built at Baum's Bridge and George Wilcox was hired as guide and caretaker.

George and Kate Wilcox lived a long and happy life on the Kankakee River. Kate passed away in 1921 and George in 1924. Both are remembered for their contribution to the Kankakee River saga.

George Wilcox is seated on the right, next to his wife Kate

07/18/2025

Like many young people Joseph Singler planned an adventure after graduation and before the demands of adulthood. He took this adventure to the mysterious Kankakee River and was eager to experience this fabulous land. Joseph was born in 1872 in Chicago, Illinois. In September of 1891 he and his chums: Charles Coventry, Charles Smith and Harry Van Horn boarded the Panhandle (Pennsylvania R. R.) at Washington Heights, Illinois for Kouts, Indiana. After arriving two hours later, the merry band engaged a team and set out for the Kankakee River.

"The country road was deep in sand and it was a tough haul for the two horses. Finally, about noon, we reached Baum’s Bridge and our first glimpse of the famous Kankakee, the river discovered and explored some centuries ago by the intrepid La Salle. The name of the gallant La Salle will be forever associated with the Kankakee," writes Singler in later life.

"As we reached the bridge we noticed Collier’s General Store on the east bank; we bought a few supplies here while we were camping out. Baum’s Bridge was an old wooden structure, erected before the Civil War, and which had replaced a ferry that was used by white travelers and Indian’s." Singler wrote in 1949. The Kankakee Valley Historical Society's historic Collier Lodge located at Baum's bridge was built in 1898. The exact location of the original Colliers Store is unknown, but it must had been close to where the later store is located.

They camped out on the west bank not far from the bridge for their one week stay. That first evening they listened to the sounds of laughter, strains of a fiddle, shuffling feet and calls for the various square dance figures at a dancehall near Baum's Bridge.

"Before starting out our exploration we met George Wilcox, who owned a farm near the river and who was custodian of Gen. Lew Wallace’s houseboat, and arranged with him for our daily supply of milk and bread. He informed us that Gen. Wallace spent all his summer vacations on the river, traveling up and down in his houseboat and devoting a good deal of his time to his writings. Almost all of “Ben Hur” was written on these river trips. In later years I had the pleasure and the privilege of meeting Gen. Wallace a number of times and he informed me he was very fond of the wild, picturesque Kankakee and spent all of his spare time here. I was told he started visiting the river in the seventies." wrote Singler.

During their adventure of 1891 they came to know the trappers of the Kankakee River. "These trappers, “river rats” made a good living trapping muskrats and beaver. They were picturesque figures, standing in their narrow pushboats, which they propelled with long push poles or paddles. I can’t recall of any of them using oars. Their devoted dogs generally trained retrievers, often occupied the bows of the little boars. They live in crude shacks in the river woods or on the edges of a swamp."

Every year after that, for quite a few years, Singler made the trip to Baum's Bridge and the historic Collier Lodge.

Joseph Singler passed away at Los Angles, California on June 7, 1960.

Pictured left-right: Joseph Singler, Harry Van Horn, Charles Smith, Jim Collier

06/27/2025

The story of the Kankakee River has many authors: first the Native American, then the fur trapper and pioneer. The railroads brought the rich and famous to the Kankakee; where they erected clubhouses — the heyday of the sportsman era. Other important contributors were the local men that worked the land and acted as guides for the sportsmen. Eleazer "Tad" Starkey was just such a man.

Starkey was born in 1877 to Eleazer and Ellen Hayes Starkey in Kouts, Ind. Tad's grandfather, David Starkey, brought his family to Indiana around 1840 and by 1850 they were well established in Center Township. In 1854 Eleazer moved to Pleasant Township, where by the mid-1870s he is farming a 30 acre parcel located a mile east of Baum's Bridge. After the passing of Eleazer in 1900 and his wife Ellen in 1909, the farm was passed on to Tad. In 1902 Tad married Lulu M. Barber. By 1921 Tad added another 27 acre parcel that fronted on the Kankakee River proper. Tad raised grain and had a small herd of dairy cows. He and Lulu were deeply involved with the Indiana Farm Bureau and experimented with the new farming practices of the day. In 1938 he reported the results of a study he conducted on fertilization of his pasture fields. Tad applied ammonium sulphate to a portion of the fields. Within a week he could see a dramatic improvement and his "cattle showed a strong preference for the fertilized grass."

Tad is one of those individuals closely associated with the story of the Kankakee during the time of transition while the marsh was drained. He spent his entire life on the marsh. He supplemented his farm income by working as a "pusher" for the sportsmen that hunted the marsh. Living close to Baum's Bridge Tad became acquainted with Lew Wallace. In 1965 Tad was interviewed by the Vidette-Messenger and told "that the general would come to the Kankakee area to fish, camp and work on one of his books. On one occasion he was asked to help Wallace locate a site for a camp. He was able to do so, and later helped Wallace pack supplies, and sometimes pushed his boat down the river for Wallace on sight-seeing excursions. He said Wallace wasn't much of a hunter, that didn't care much for hunting, but that he liked to camp out on the banks of the Kankakee do a little fishing and writing."

Tad had a unique perspective on the draining of the marsh; with half of his life spent on the marsh before the draining and half after. He admitted that the draining gave him a lot more land, but "There are a lot more things to life than just farming."

Starkey was one of the last "pushers" of the old Kankakee Marsh before it was drained and channelized. Tad passed away in 1967 at the age of 90, Lulu was to follow in 1970.

Tad Starkey is seated on right.

06/20/2025

The Hall family story is one of the more interesting Kankakee River tales. Edward Hall was born in Ireland in 1812. He immigrated to Canada with his wife, Ann Maxwell, where they lived for two years and then on to Indiana in 1836. They owned property in section 6 in Pleasant Township, Porter County. Major McFadin was a close friend of Edward Hall's and wrote this: "I was acquainted with him for over 20 years, and he was a good, kind man, and had a large family of boys, all hunters and trappers, and they lived like Robinson Crusoe in the wilderness, without any neighbors within 5 or 6 miles of them, and I begrudged them their happy and wild life, and would like to have joined them in their romantic home near the banks of the Kankakee." Edward died in 1881 and Ann in 1914.

James was born to Edward and Ann in 1853. James married Nancy Cannon of Kouts in 1875, they had 8 children. A majority of the following comes from the writings of historian Richard "Dick" C. Schmal as was told to him by Kris Hall, the grandson of James.

James and Nancy Hall lived in San Pierre, Indiana. James was working stacking hay on the Brown Ranch near Shelby, Indiana. He heard that a dredge barge was for sale and purchased it. In 1900 he decided to move his family to Shelby on the barge that he converted to a houseboat. The houseboat was 34 by 14 feet in size. Schmal writes: "There were nine family members who made the trip: James and Nancy, along with daughters Ella, Daisy, Dora and Hazel, and sons Elmer, Millard and John (who was just a baby). Also, several old hound dogs, a flock of chickens and barrels filled with staples such as flour and apples added to the clutter."

The Hall family moved slowly down the Kankakee. "In late November they finally reached the 3-I railroad bridge above Shelby. Here they had to stop for the winter because they were driving pilings for a new bridge... In the late spring of 1901 the new bridge was completed and the old pilings were cut away, leaving room for the barge to pass through." writes Schmal.

The Hall family found a place near Shelby. "The family lived on the floating houseboat for a period of time until it began to leak so badly that it had to be pulled onto the bank, where they lived for several years (at least through 1917), paying five dollars rent annually for the site."

Around 1910 James leaves his family in Shelby and moves to Florida. His obituary dated July 23, 1920 reads: James Hall, known as "Dad", was found dead on Shell Island in his bachelor's quarters Sunday afternoon by Tom Williams. As near as could be ascertained the old fisherman came to his death from natural causes. The only articles found in his pockets were receipts for dues paid the Odd Fellows Lodge. He had been living on Shell Island, acting as fisherman and guide for a number of years, and living the life of a hermit." Nancy died in Shelby in 1945.

The Halls were a large family and many descendants remain in Northwest Indiana to this day. Pictured is the Hall family in front of the barge that brought them to new home in Shelby.

06/13/2025

In a past Facebook posting I told you of Rowley and Bertha Morehouse. My research shows that Rowley Morehouse was arguably one of the highest respected and successful Kankakee River guides of the Kankakee Marsh. Rowley and Bertha’s home was across the Kankakee River from Baum’s Bridge. Their descendants still call Northwest Indiana their home. Their daughter, Mary Thatcher, kept up her family story for all of her life. Mary was interviewed by Laverne Terpstra, Transcribed by Shirley Zeck on November 19, 1992. This work was DeMotte-Kankakee Valley Rotary Club Oral History Project

Mary Morehouse-Thatcher was a Kankakee River fur trapper’s daughter. Mary was born on August 19, 1893 to Rowley and Bertha Lange Morehouse near Wheatfield, Jasper County, Indiana. The Morehouse farm was located across the Kankakee River from Baum’s Bridge. Mary’s story tells the details of being raised on a farm at the turn of the 20th century. This was the first female’s perspective of life in the Kankakee Marsh that I’ve come across. So many little things that we take for granted were labor intensive in the early 1900s. Bath taking is one example that Mary told about: “To take a bath, we took the wash tub behind the stove, (ha, ha) heat some water and crawl in there and take your bath. Then that all had to be dumped out. The next guy come along. My mother always put the boiler on when it come time to take baths. A couple times a week we took a bath. When she took out one to give a bath, she put a little more water in the boiler to keep hot water. Everybody had their baths. It was hard getting along in those days, I tell you.” But, male or female, everyone worked the farm. Mary talks about all aspects of farm life and its duties. Mary passed away on January 30, 1994 not far from where she was born in Jasper County, Indiana along the Kankakee River. Mary lived to see her one-hundredth birthday! Mary is pictured on right front in around 1910

Mary can be seen near the front of the buggy. Go here to read Mary’s life story: http://kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org/?page_id=1405

06/06/2025

A very important figure in Kankakee River history was the fur trapper. From earliest times up until today fur trapping of the Kankakee Marsh has been an active pursuit. Demand and price has fluctuated, but the industry has always existed. This has been a business that both the Native American and white men engaged in. Today trapping is not as popular as in the past because of low demand. In 1883, Major McFadin wrote this about the fur trapper. "The Kankakee still retains its place as one of the best trapping grounds in the State. Every six miles of this river is taken up by trappers who make a fair living catching muskrats, mink and a few otter. A fair average catch per day is 30 rat. Fall rat skins sell at from ten to fourteen cents. Spring rats are much higher in price, usually bringing twenty cents." J. Lorenzo Werich wrote: "during the Civil War a mink hide would sell from $4.00 to $9.00 and a good c**n skin would bring $4.50." With their wealth of knowledge of the marsh the Kankakee trapper often supplemented their income by acting as guides for the sportsmen.

Werich in his "Pioneer Hunter of the Kankakee" wrote at length about the trapper's life on the Kankakee and what brought them to the marsh. "As gold and gems was the magnet that attracted our Hoosier folks to the Far West, so it was the fur trade that brought the early explorers to the Kankakee region." With no established hunting ground many disputes sprung up. Werich writes: "So some of the old pioneer trappers got together and established what is known as a trappers' claim...and were divided by a line running north and south as the river is supposed to flow...and was from 2 to 10 miles in width." McFadin wrote that although prices for rats are low in the fall "trappers are compelled to catch rats in the fall in order to keep others off their ground."

McFadin sums up the character of the Kankakee trapper. "A majority of these trappers are hard working, intelligent, honest men, with homes and families. Occasionally, however, a man is found devoid of all instincts of decency and fair play, a veritable Pariah amongst the flock. Their lives, however, as trappers, usually cease after one season."

Early traps were crude devices constructed out of logs, sticks, twine and rope. They were effective, but inefficient. The introduction of the steel trap was the solution. Werich wrote: "In the fall of 1845 Harrison Hartz Folsom and Rens Brainard" went to Hebron and engaged blacksmith John Alyea "to make them three dozen steel rat-traps at one dollar each, and four two-spring otter traps, or wolf traps as they are sometimes called, at three dollars each. These were the first steel traps made and set in the Kankakee country."

Early trappers of the Kankakee Marsh have a checkered reputation. On the one hand they are often referred to as "River Rats" of low morale character and other times acknowledged for their work ethics, resourcefulness and grit. Probably both descriptions are accurate.