Relocation of Father Marquette marker sought
Local archaeologist seeks its return to original site
By James Pluta
A meeting has been called to discuss the possibility of moving the stone
Father Marquette marker from where it has stood at the top of the hill in
Summit Park to where it originally was located back in 1968.
The meeting was scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10 at the Summit
Public Library, 6209 S. Archer Road, by local archaeologist and author
Robert Kott, a former member of the Argo-Summit/Bedford Park Elementary
District 104 School Board.
The monument, made up of stones brought to this region by glaciers 10,000
years ago, commemorates the spot where Marquette landed here in 1675, said
Kott.
“We’d like to put the monument in its rightful place,” he said, adding the
original land it stood is now a dump site used over the years by illegal
“fly” dumpers to dispose of building materials, rocks and garbage.
Attending will be Ruth Nelson of Downers Grove, who is writing a new book
about the travels of Marquette, who stopped here upon discovering the
Portage on his last journey from the Illini Village in 1673.
The meeting will be open to the public and both former or interested
members in the Summit Area Historical Society, whose attempts to erect a
museum near the original site behind Summit Park along the Canadian
National Railroad failed some 25 years ago.
Kott said he hopes to create momentum to convince railroad officials, who
apparently looking to dispose of the property, to donate it to this cause
so it can again become a tourist site.
“The monument commemorates the early transportation route through the
(Desplaines) valley,” said Kott, who three years ago wrote a book about
the Summit region through Arcadia Publishing. “We want to put it back from
where it was moved in the 1950s from the site of the original Chicago &
Alton Railroad train station first built in the 1895.”
Kott said Marquette came to the Summit area after being forced from his
quarters at what is now roughly 35th Street and Damen Avenue, a high
ground near the Chicago River that was used as a campground by explorers
of the time.
What a lot of people do not know, revealed Kott, is that locally, portions
of the Desplaines River were moved. The river used to run even closer to
modern-day Summit than it does today.
An exhibit is currently on display at the library telling the whole story
of Marquette and the monument erected in his honor.
A meeting has been called to discuss the possibility of moving the stone
Father Marquette marker from where it has stood at the top of the hill in
Summit Park to where it originally was located back in 1968.
The meeting was scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10 at the Summit
Public Library, 6209 S. Archer Road, by local archaeologist and author
Robert Kott, a former member of the Argo-Summit/Bedford Park Elementary
District 104 School Board.
The monument, made up of stones brought to this region by glaciers 10,000
years ago, commemorates the spot where Marquette landed here in 1675, said
Kott.
“We’d like to put the monument in its rightful place,” he said, adding the
original land it stood is now a dump site used over the years by illegal
“fly” dumpers to dispose of building materials, rocks and garbage.
Attending will be Ruth Nelson of Downers Grove, who is writing a new book
about the travels of Marquette, who stopped here upon discovering the
Portage on his last journey from the Illini Village in 1673.
The meeting will be open to the public and both former or interested
members in the Summit Area Historical Society, whose attempts to erect a
museum near the original site behind Summit Park along the Canadian
National Railroad failed some 25 years ago.
Kott said he hopes to create momentum to convince railroad officials, who
apparently looking to dispose of the property, to donate it to this cause
so it can again become a tourist site.
“The monument commemorates the early transportation route through the
(Desplaines) valley,” said Kott, who three years ago wrote a book about
the Summit region through Arcadia Publishing. “We want to put it back from
where it was moved in the 1950s from the site of the original Chicago &
Alton Railroad train station first built in the 1895.”
Kott said Marquette came to the Summit area after being forced from his
quarters at what is now roughly 35th Street and Damen Avenue, a high
ground near the Chicago River that was used as a campground by explorers
of the time.
What a lot of people do not know, revealed Kott, is that locally, portions
of the Desplaines River were moved. The river used to run even closer to
modern-day Summit than it does today.
An exhibit is currently on display at the library telling the whole story
of Marquette and the monument erected in his honor.