This fascinating account explores the significance of the Chicago Portage, one of the most important--and neglected--sites in early US history.

BENJAMIN SELLS is the author of the The Tunnel under the Lake: The Engineering Marvel That Saved Chicago, also published by Northwestern University Press. His other books include The Soul of the Law, which was recently reissued in a twentieth-anniversary edition; The Essentials of Style: A Handbook for Seeing and Being Seen; Order in the Court: Crafting a More Just World in Lawless Times; and The Soul of Sailing.