George Streeter

George Wellington "Cap" Streeter (1837 - January 22, 1921) was born near the town of Flint, Michigan. During a storm on July 10, 1886, the former Mississippi River boat captain and circus owner ran his steamboat, the 35-ton "Reutan", onto a sandbar near East Superior Street in Chicago, Illinois. Unable to move the vessel, which slowly silted into place, Streeter claimed it made up the independent "United States District of Lake Michigan" and thereby was not subject to the laws of Illinois or Chicago.cite news |title=Chicago's 'Oasis' Raided by Police |publisher=The New York Times |page=8 |date=1915-11-15 |accessdate=2007-12-28 |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9402E6D81239E333A25756C1A9679D946496D6CF ]

Ever since the downtown clean-up after the Great Fire in 1871, Lake Michigan had been used as a dump by building contractors looking to get rid of backfill and general rubble. Streeter invited such contractors to dump their rubble on the sandbar where the "Reutan" sat, extending the size of his land considerably. Over time, this landfill connected the "Reutan" to the city. As the landmass grew, collecting more dumped rubble as well as silt from the lake, Streeter began to issue deeds to the land to others who saw themselves as "homesteaders" in the growing city of Chicago. City planners and founders saw otherwise.

In 1889, Streeter and his common-law wife, Maria, moved into a larger ship that had run aground in the District and named it the "Castle".

That summer, industrialist N. K. Fairbank, who claimed rights to the area, arrived to inform Streeter he was an illegal squatter and would have to leave. Streeter chased Fairbank off with a shotgun. Shortly thereafter, Streeter also chased away the constables who had come to evict him.cite news |title=Capt. Streeter in luck. A shipwreck caused him to blossom out as a capitalist. |publisher=The New York Times |page=16 |date=1892-12-04 |accessdate=2007-12-28 |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07E1DF1731E033A25757C0A9649D94639ED7CF ] Further attempts to remove them were met with gunfire and pots of scalding water. After one such raid resulted in his arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, Streeter was acquitted on the grounds that buckshot was not considered deadly.

Although Fairbank sued Streeter in 1890 and won, Streeter maintained his hold on the District, which was now home to prostitutes, transients and other "undesirables." In 1892 it was estimated that the land was worth around $300,000, a substantial sum in that era.

During the World's Columbian Exposition, Streeter refloated the "Reutan" and used it to ferry passengers between Streeterville and the exposition grounds at Jackson Park.

From 1894 on, there were many attempts to forcibly remove Streeter from the District, often for violating laws that prohibited the sale of liquor on Sunday. In cases in which police were injured by axes and gunfire, Streeter and his men were invariably found not guilty due to acting in self-defense. Streeter's fight for what he considered his land continued until his death on January 22, 1921, although he and his second wife had left Streeterville to move to East Chicago, Indiana, in 1918. The Streeters' heirs continued to lay claim on the land until April 1928, when the courts ruled in favor of Chicago Title and Trust.

The site of Streeter's shanty is currently occupied by the John Hancock Center,Fact|date=March 2008 and the surrounding Chicago neighborhood is known as Streeterville.

External links

* [http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/cplarchive/archivalcoll/str.php The Chicago Public Library's extensive Streeterville Collection.]
*" [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0705070719may08,1,3554778.story?coll=chi-news-hed Streeterville Quite a Bit Ritzier Than Streeter Was] ," "Chicago Tribune", May 8, 2007. "No longer available."

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