La Salle, Illinois Campgrounds and RV Parks

LaSalle, Illinois

LaSalle and its slightly larger twin city, Peru, constitute the main population centers of the Illinois River Valley. LaSalle's population is about 9,500, Peru's almost a thousand more.

LaSalle and Chicago were linked in the 1830s by a canal which was built to connect the river to Lake Michigan in order to alleviate the necessity of a series of portages across the rapids. At first LaSalle, at the south western end, was the larger of the two cities, but Chicago, at the north eastern end, soon became dominant.

Establishing transportation routes resulted in two riots, the first of them involving immigrants from Northern and Southern Ireland who were building the canal. This became known as the War of the Kerry Patch and spread to Peru and other adjacent areas, finally breaking up near Buffalo Rock. There were ten officially recorded deaths. The second, although it has no title in the history books, involved the building of a railway bridge. There was a dispute due to the fact that some of the workers missed the memo about a lower wage. Their anger resulted in the violent death of the contractor, Albert Story, at the hands of twelve men. This was not the end of the ill-feeling. The governor commuted those death sentences to life imprisonment and, upon his visit to LaSalle, he was burned in effigy.

The Hegeler Carus Mansion, inhabited by the Hegeler and Carus families for many years, is now a public site where people may enjoy the distinctive architectural style of Chicago architect, William W. Boyington. Hegeler, Carus' father-in-law, was devoted to the idea that the scientific world-conception coming into vogue should be applied to religion as well.

He then founded the Open Court Publishing Company, and established Carus who had a doctorate in philosophy from Europe, as editor. Carus had left his native Germany because of his liberal views which were later embodied through the company. He embraced eastern thought and published works of eastern religious scholars.

• Starved Rock State Park
• Matthiessen State Park
• Wild Bill Hickok State Memorial
• Hegeler Carus Mansion, in Second Empire architectural style
• LaSalle Canal Boat rides
• Family Land, amusement park
• LaSalle Speedway
• Senica's Oak Ridge Golf Club