Des Plaines River Lake How to cook asian carp Illinois. Native Americans used the river as transportation route and portage. Parts of the river are now part of the Illinois Waterway and the Chicago Area Waterway System.

The slow-moving Des Plaines River rises in southern Wisconsin just west of Kenosha adjacent to the Great Lakes Dragway and flows southward primarily through marshland as it crosses into Illinois. In the heavily industrialized area around Joliet, dams control the river. Just west of Joliet, the Des Plaines converges with the Kankakee River to form the Illinois River. Those parts of the Des Plaines River preserved in a mostly natural state are used for conservation and recreation, while substantially altered sections serve as an important industrial waterway and drainage channel. Illinois counties, it “changes from prairie creek to a suburban stream, to a large urbanized river, to a major industrial waterway. Sections of the river in the Lake County and Cook County Forest Preserve districts in Illinois create “a nearly continuous greenway though all of Lake County and the northern section of Cook County.

While canoe launching ramps are available, “The lack of ramps for trailered boats makes this long river a quiet, family-friendly river. The Des Plaines River was named by early French coureurs de bois sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries, after the trees lining the banks of the river. The English word for the plane tree came from the 14th century Old French word la plane. Since the later 18th century, the French word for the plane tree has evolved into le platane. Many people today believe that the river was named after the plains and prairies through which the river flows. But, in the 18th-century French dialect, it was more common to use the word “prairie” to indicate a plain, such as Prairie du Rocher in Illinois and Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin. Although the original French name for the river has survived, its pronunciation has been altered.

It is also commonly referred to as “The DPR” by locals, citing its initials. Northeast of Bristol, Wisconsin, Brighton creek flows into the river. Jerome Creek and the Root River both converge with the Des Plaines near Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Mill Creek of Old Mill Creek flows through County Forest Preserve before entering the Des Plaines River.

Another tributary of the river near the Illinois-Wisconsin border is Osprey Lake, in Gurnee, Illinois, which flows through a small unnamed creek before dumping into the river. Bull Creek in Libertyville, Illinois flows into the Des Plaines near Independence Grove Forest Preserve. In Lincolnshire, Illinois, Indian creek flows eastward into the Des Plaines River. Near Chicago Executive Airport, the Wheeling Drainage Ditch of Wheeling, Illinois flows southeast through the town and adds to the river. Southeast of Mount Prospect and due north of Des Plaines, Illinois, Weller Creek flows south into the DPR. Half a mile east of O’Hare International Airport, Crystal Creek meanders its way into the Des Plaines. Salt Creek of Hollywood, a neighborhood in Brookfield, Illinois flows downstream into the river.