Let's Talk Kankakee County History

Vice-presidential candidate Sen. Richard M. Nixon addressed a crowd from the rear platform of his campaign train at the Kankakee IC station on October 17, 1952. He would make another ‘whistlestop’ visit to Kankakee four years later, when he and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were seeking reelection. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive) By Jack Klasey November 8, 2025 Until the 1900 election, campaigning by presidential and vice-presidential candidates was conducted primaril

The Kankakee Rowing Club’s boathouse was located at the mouth of Squaw Creek, lshown at lower left on this map. Most of the creek is covered over—only the short stretch between Eagle Street and the Kankakee River is visible. By Jack Klasey November 1, 2025 Throughout local history—beginning with the canoes of explorers and Indians, through the excursion steamers of the late 1800s, to the roaring racers on the Labor Day regattas, and the summer fleet of motorboats, pontoons, k

At his Bird Lodge home in Kankakee, Dodson examines one of the dozens of bird houses hung on trees and mounted on poles around the Harrison Avenue house. (Kankakee County Museum Photo Archive)  By Jack Klasey October 25, 2025 To say that Joseph H. Dodson loved birds was like observing that a politician is interested in getting elected. Dodson, for more than a quarter-century was the “birdman of Kankakee,” operating a bird sanctuary on the large grounds of his home at 701 S. H

When the Illinois Central Railroad reached Kankakee in 1853, there were a number of small settlements, such as Bloom’s Grove and Rockville, that had been established on the edge of the prairie. By Jack Klasey October 18, 2025 “In the early days, the silence of the prairies was awful, especially in the autumn,” wrote H. S. Bloom, a pioneer settler who arrived in what is now Kankakee County in the spring of 1837. His detailed reminiscence of pioneer life was published in the 18