Yachtapalooza Seminar: The Harrowing History of Chicago’s Lakefront, Presented by Geoffrey Baer

Name: Yachtapalooza Seminar: The Harrowing History of Chicago’s Lakefront, Presented by Geoffrey Baer
Start: 2026-03-21T11:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-03-21T12:00:00-05:00
Location: 3434 E 95th St, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60617

Schedule

Sat Mar 21 2026 at 11:00 am to 12:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

3434 E 95th St, Chicago, IL, United States, Illinois 60617 | Whiting, IN

SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:
Chicago’s lakefront has been at the center of many battles (both legal and literal) over the two centuries since non-native settlers arrived. And the result is a waterfront that has been continually re-shaped. In this talk Geoffrey Baer starts at the end of the last ice age when the lake was much bigger than it is today, and flashes forward to the soldiers who inadvertently added land to the lakefront by building a pier, the backroom deal that allowed a railroad to run right up the lakefront, the pitched legal fight to preserve the lakefront for the people, the arrival of a swindler who claimed a piece of lakefront land for himself, the sweeping Burnham Plan that gave us a vast lakefront park system and our spectacular harbors and much, much more.