Nonart object review

Dennis Matthews
November 27, 2007

How I spent my Friday with the most important
yet pointless monument in Chicago.

A lone tombstone is anchored on a street corner near Chicago’s Orange Line 35th/Archer stop. No one is buried underneath this marker though. A reminder of the history of our city’s foundations is mostly forgotten amongst garbage, a bad neighborhood, and fencing that demands that this historical preservation site shall go no further. Nearly shadowing the monument is a single condo that sets a bar higher than the neighborhood cares to reach.
Chicago is a great city for history fans and those that visit will probably learn something before they leave. There are great monuments to important events in the history of the entire nation, like the Haymarket Riot and the Water Tower, but this marker may be the biggest deal of them all. Besides appearing to be a dead guy in his own cemetery, it refers to the two of the first Europeans who traveled all the way to the Gulf of Mexico from the Great Lakes.
Well not quite so far, the two explorers Marquette and Joliet stopped at Arkansas fearing if they went any further the Spanish would capture them. The oddness of what looked like a single grave marker stopped me and I felt forced to investigate. There are many things about this monument that I have problems with, for one it was put up by the Bigane family in 1973 who appear to have no connection to either explorer. But they thought it was important to have this made on the 300th anniversary of the expedition. And further to put it in a completely culturally irrelevant area. I mean it doesn’t even get tethered to the really nice park across the street. Seriously fudge the details here and put up a fountain or place to walk a dog.
The travels they embarked on led to LaSalle later claiming the second fourth of America for France. Alongside the Mississippi river, he would set up very successful trading posts making the Louisiana Purchase more of buying a ready-made market. According to what the text on the monument claims, “We thank God for these natural waters and lands which we hope may be saved from pollution.” Marquette and Joliet’s experiences are remembered here in hopes that it will save the area from being trashed. The text on the stone further talks about how much the two explorers also found like Indian trails, waterways and apparently Wisconsin was also discovered during their travels. At least this grand historical event will always have its ten foot by ten foot street corner.