The Plan

By the time the Forest Preserve District acquired the land of the Skokie Marsh in the late 1920s, conservationists agreed that the land needed to be changed to stop flooding, but preserved for recreation.  Studies of the Skokie River watershed determined that engineers had two options to control floods: either significantly widen the river’s channel south of Willow Road, or create a space where floodwater could be stored safely and released gradually.  Engineers recommended the second option, as the Skokie Marsh naturally accumulated water on its own and the Forest Preserve District already owned the land.

When the CCC adopted the project in 1933, federal engineers drafted a plan based on the Forest Preserve’s proposal.  The final design included seven lagoons, four dams, large dikes around the lagoons, and two diversion ditches.  This new waterway would prevent flooding by channeling the water of the Skokie River into the lagoons.  Three smaller dams and one large main dam would regulate the flow of the water, and the dikes would contain floodwaters within the established 400-acre floodplain.  The diversion ditches along either side of the floodplain would collect any water that flowed into the former marsh area from the east and west and carry it below the lagoons to where the Skokie River regained its channel.