Originally, the Sauk Trail ran easterly across Illinois from Rock Island to the Illinois River at Peru, then paralleled the north bank of the Illinois to Joliet, then easterly to Valparaiso, Indiana. From there, it angled northeasterly to LaPorte and across southern  Michigan to Detroit.

For centuries, bands of Native Americans traveled Sauk Trail in single file, on missions of peace or war, until they had beaten a narrow pathway deep in the soil. Native Americans, traveling overland, picked the shortest and safest route for easy trotting, often following paths worn by deer or buffalo. They were partial to low ridges but went around hills, lakes, and swamps and places thick with thorny underbrush, the exact reason the Sauk Trail is so crooked. When the first settlers came to the Midwest, they followed the trail, LaSalle and other explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and parties of soldiers. The early settlers traveled on horseback, and over time the Great Sauk Trail became a road used by stagecoaches, buggies, and farm wagons. In the early part of the 20 th Century, automobiles replaced horses and The Great Sauk Trail’s association with the Lincoln Highway was born.

The Sauk Trail crossed several very important Indian trails and many others joined it at various points. It crossed what became Hubbard's Trace and the Vincennes Road at South Chicago Heights (Brown's Corner). Some historians believe that LaSalle made at least one trip over the Sauk Trail to Fort Miami, which he and Tonty had built in 1678 near the mouth of the St. Joseph River in Michigan. The French undoubtedly used Sauk Trail after 1697, when they built Fort St. Joseph at Niles. 

In 1781, an expedition of Spanish soldiers came up the Illinois River, east on Sauk Trail, seized Fort St. Joseph, flew their flag over it for 24 hours, and hastily retreated to St. Louis. In 1803, a company of American soldiers marched over it from Detroit to LaPorte and then to Chicago where they built Fort Dearborn.

The Sauk (or Sac) and Fox Indians, like the Iroquois, sided with the British during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. The British made an annual payment of goods at Fort Malden, Canada, near Detroit, and later, the United States government, in exchange for lands, annually paid $600 to the Sauk and $400 to the Fox in goods delivered at Fort  Detroit. So Chief Blackhawk and his two tribes -- men, women, children, ponies and dogs -- traveled each year from Rock Island to  Detroit over the Sauk Trail, as their painted braves had swiftly traveled Sauk Trail to make war on the French and Americans.

In1838, the Potawatomi in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois sadly traveled the Great Sauk Trail for the last time to the Mississippi River and their new homes farther west.

(Excerpted from “Nature Bulletin No. 436-A, December 4, 1971, Forest Preserve District of Cook County)