by southsideriverrat » July 19, 2010, 10:26 pm
Hi. I'm a first-time poster here although I've been surfing around Boatnerd.com for a few years now. I just read through the fabulous "Chicago History Teacher" thread from earlier this month. Fascinating. Most of the mid-20th Century history pre-dates me but I grew up in the 1970's watching the industrial economy collapse all around the Great Lakes area from my childhood vantage points of Cleveland, Muskegon, and Chicago's south side.
Recently on a few hot summer evenings I've taken to motorcycling down to the Calumet River area (from the south loop area where I live) just to go exploring. I'd like to find one or two spots along the Calumet River where I could park the bike, sit down, and just see what's going on with river traffic. The bridges don't seem ideal for this. As far as I can see there are no parks on the river. There are no restaurants on the river that I can find... at least not in the part of the river used by the lake boats. The old South Works area is heavily barricaded. All of the commercial properties on the river are heavily posted with "No Trespassing" signs. Etc., etc.
Any ideas? A small pleasure boat might be a good solution but would raise the hassle-factor pretty high for me and it seems there are no marinas located near Lake Mich on the Calumet River.
Thanks
Dan Vandenberg
Hi. I'm a first-time poster here although I've been surfing around Boatnerd.com for a few years now. I just read through the fabulous "Chicago History Teacher" thread from earlier this month. Fascinating. Most of the mid-20th Century history pre-dates me but I grew up in the 1970's watching the industrial economy collapse all around the Great Lakes area from my childhood vantage points of Cleveland, Muskegon, and Chicago's south side.
Recently on a few hot summer evenings I've taken to motorcycling down to the Calumet River area (from the south loop area where I live) just to go exploring. I'd like to find one or two spots along the Calumet River where I could park the bike, sit down, and just see what's going on with river traffic. The bridges don't seem ideal for this. As far as I can see there are no parks on the river. There are no restaurants on the river that I can find... at least not in the part of the river used by the lake boats. The old South Works area is heavily barricaded. All of the commercial properties on the river are heavily posted with "No Trespassing" signs. Etc., etc.
Any ideas? A small pleasure boat might be a good solution but would raise the hassle-factor pretty high for me and it seems there are no marinas located near Lake Mich on the Calumet River.
Thanks
Dan Vandenberg