By Tom Willcockson

Forward by Ronald S Vasile

Before there were planes, trains, and automobiles, there were waterways and canals to carry goods and passengers from the Midwest to a larger world far away. During the mid-19th century, mule-drawn canal boats by the hundreds travelled a liquid superhighway called the Illinois & Michigan Canal, an economic thoroughfare that spurred the growth of towns like LaSalle, Ottawa, and Joliet along its banks, in addition to helping found the now-famous inland port city called Chicago.

Passage to Chicago takes the reader on a special journey by giving them an in-depth, illustrated look at life on a fictional canal boat, the Prairie Star, as it travels to Chicago just before the Civil War.

You will experience the daily lives of those who lived and worked on the canal boats, as well as the towns through with they traveled. Hop on board with the canalers, mule boys, the lock tenders, and their families, miners, quarrymen, shopkeepers, and others, to witness their world of more than 150 years ago.