Boats, Bubbles and Burgers.  What do you call a river that was once used as an open sewer by the Union Stock Yards?  One that, with so many animal entrails dumped into it, began to bubble with methane gas?  Hint, it’s NOT in Cleveland.  The answer is the South Fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River, better known as Bubbly Creek.

Bubbly Creek is no longer bubbly, and it’s definitely not the most picturesque part of the river.  It is, however, where you can find the Bridgeport Art Center.  A fantastic 500,000 square foot building with giant wood beams, exposed brick and cool views of the city.  Tucked away on the first floor of the Center is the Chicago Maritime Museum.

The museum is by no means large, but it’s interesting and a great way to spend a chilly morning / early afternoon.  We had a good time and even learned a little about the history of Chicago’s various waterways.  We also got to see a master modeler, building a scale model replica of a ship that once traveled the Great Lakes.

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A trip through the museum starts with the Indians and traders that first settled in the area.  We learned about Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the “Founder of Chicago”, saw maps of early waterways and portages used to connect Chicago to the Mississippi River and tried our hand at creating a dug-out canoe by burning a tree trunk.  Ok, we saw pictures of someone else making the canoe.  We also learned that Chicago was a hub for the global beaver market in the 1800’s.  Evidentially, American beaver was highly sought after, in Europe, at the time.  Take that Frenchy McBeaver Pelt!

After the beavers, we came across the commercial ships of the Great Lakes.  Here we learned how Great Lakes commerce changed from being dominated by wooden-hulled sailing ships to metal-hulled steam ships.  There are some interesting pictures and a very nice replica of the five-masted, 265-foot-long, David Dows in this section of the museum.  We also saw a dive suit that was used for rescue and recovery operations when the Eastland capsized in the Chicago river in 1915.  This terrible event took place as employees and family members of the Western Electric Company were boarding the ship for a picnic in Michigan City.  While still at the dock the ship rolled over, taking the lives of 844 passengers and crew.  This is still considered the worst tragedy in the history of the Great Lakes.

The museum wraps up with an interesting overview of military ships in and around Chicago.  Chicago has never been the sight of a major naval conflict, but there were 2 aircraft carriers stationed at Navy Pier, during World War 2.  Theses were for pilots to train on, before heading off to the war.  See if you can find the cut away model of a yellow submarine in this section of the museum.  We have no clue what the family was trying to do there!

All-in-all, the museum was a pleasant way to spend some time together.  There are lots of picture, models and stories, and we learned some interesting history.  Another place we had never heard of until just a few months ago.  Chicagoland is chock full of places like this and we plan on tracking them all down.  If you have any suggestions, please let us know!

After the museum, we decided to try our luck at Au Cheval.  Deemed to have best burger in America, the restaurant always has a long wait and we never seem to have the time before we need to be back home.  Today, however, we had plenty of time and decided to wait – no matter what.  Of course, we were seated in less than 15 minutes.   Check out our experience at Au Cheval.