In 1673, early explorers Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, were returning from exploring the Mississippi River and portaged through Mud Lake and the Chicago River. There was a creek at what is now 48th Street and Harlem Avenue which connected the Des Plaines River and Mud Lake. The shorter route to Lake Michigan was probably disclosed to Marquette and Joliet by the Indians in the Arkansas River region who had been using the route for centuries. The area between the present-day villages of Riverside and Summit became known as the Chicago Portage.

The Portage was approximately nine miles long, but its exact location was not recorded until 1682 when LaSalle made his last of three trips to this area from Canada. The geographic location of this portage was the main reason the city of Chicago grew where it did rather than at the extreme south end of Lake Michigan.