A beautiful book, strongly appealing to historians, the learned public, students of midwest genealogy & the bibliophile. Three major chapters present: 1) a chronology, with maps tracing the progress of cartographic knowledge from Canada's Atlantic coast to the Chicago area; 2) an encyclopedia with 3000+ entries on events, animals, plants & people who left a record; & 3) a guide to historic monuments commemorating the period. Interaction between Indians, explorers & settlers is brought vividly to life by numerous eyewitness accounts. Special attention is afforded jurisdictional claims; the fur trade with its French, British & American phases & the successive wars among these nations; Jesuits & their missions; the French period of Chicago beginning 1696 & relations with New France & Louisiana; treaties with Indian chiefs; tribal movements & customs; Black Hawk war & Winnebago scare; the two Fort Dearborns, their officers, soldiers & physicians; important settlers such as the Kinzie, Ouilmette & Beaubien families; the role of women; & the village's 1833 incorporation, its leading citizens & early ordinances. John F. Swenson contributed historically updated essays on Chicago's name (Chicagoua: Miami Indian for Allium tricoccum) & the lives of Jean Baptiste Point de Sable & John Kinzie.