Home > Channahon, Illinois

Its name meaning "Meeting of the Waters" in the language of the area's original Potawatomi inhabitants, Channahon is located at the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers, where they form the Illinois River. The Illinois and Michigan Canal (including several locks) runs through most of the village, where it is fed by the water of the DuPage River. Later in the 19th century, the Santa Fe Railroad was laid through the eastern portions of the city. In the late 1920s, U.S. Highway 6 came through Channahon; Interstates 80 and 55 followed in the 1960s (although I-80 runs approximately two miles to the north of the village limits).

Its abundance of transportation links makes its historically small size somewhat of a puzzle. One possible explanation is that, although the area has been settled by whites since the 1830s, the village did not formally incorporate until 1897, and disincorporated fifteen years later (to avoid liability in an early automobile accident). It did not reincorporate until 1963. While Channahon has a concentration of businesses along US6, it has no real downtown, and throughout the first three quarters of the 20th century it was primarily a working-class bedroom community for neighboring Joliet.

Serious development finally began in the 1970s, as the village's proximity to two trunk line interstates and white flight from Joliet resulted in both industrial growth (a Mobil oil refineryAn oil refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into useful petroleum products. Raw or unprocessed ("crude") oil is not very useful in the form it comes in out of the ground. It needs to be broken down into parts an, two petrochemicals plants, a gigantic soybeanSoybeans ( US) or soya beans ( UK) Glycine max are a high- protein legume (Family Fabaceae) grown as food for both humans and livestock. The word soy comes from Japanese shoyu. Soybeans may be boiled whole (in the green pod) and served with salt, often un oil production facility, and numerous support businesses for the freight hauling industry) and residential development. The village also saw an influx of population from eastern KentuckyCommonwealth of Kentucky ( In Detail) (Full size) State nickname: Bluegrass State Other U. States Capital Frankfort Largest City Louisville Governor Ernie Fletcher Area Total Land Water % water Ranked 37th 104,749 km² 102,989 km² 1,760 km² 1. 7% Populatio in the wake of the closure of many of that area's coalCoal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by mining. It is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. It is composed primarily of carbon and hydrocarbons, along with assorted other elements, including sulfur. Often associated wi mines. Beginning in the 1990s, development in Channahon took on a more middle-class bent, with subdivisions sprouting in the former gravelGravel Gravel is rock that is of a certain size range. In geology, gravel is any loose rock that is at least two millimeters in its largest dimension (about 1/12 of an inch), and no more than 75 millimeters (about 3 inches). Sometimes gravel is restricted quarrying and dairy farming areas near the I&M Canal in the village's western areas, and a widely acclaimed public golfThis article is about the sport of golf. For other meanings, see Golf (disambiguation). Golf is an outdoor game where individual players or teams play a small ball into a hole using various clubs. It is defined in the Rules of Golf as playing a ball with course opening in the hilly southeastern area of the village near I-55. A major natural gasNatural gas is a gas produced by the anaerobic decay of organic material. It is usually found in oil fields and natural gas fields, but is also generated in swamps and marshes (where it is called swamp gas or marsh gas , in landfill sites, and during dige pipeline to the Chicago area from Canada had its southern terminus built in Channahon in 2000, bringing even more jobs and desperately needed tax revenue (Channahonians are noted for their aversion to taxation) to the now fast-growing village.