Cheltenham Place
Indian Village No. 11

Indian village No. 11 has the distinction of being the only village of the Calumet marsh which was located upon the shore of lake Michigan; at a point one mile and a half north of the mouth of the grand Calumet river, where the semi-circle of the south shore begins to form. Here, at this first station on the west shore trail going north, all the trails from the marsh were united. The remarkable appearance of the underlying rock, instead of sand, at the foot of 79th St, Hyde Park, does not occur at any other point near Chicago.

Another feature of this place was the solitary sand dune piled up on the shore by the east and north winds to the highth of forty feet, forming a beacon hill. The refuse here consists mainly of chips from the material at hand, showing that however large the population it was migratory.

The Indian village extended half a mile north with the shore including Cheltenham beach and Windsor Park. The chips of a camp site have also been found along the lake shore at 68th St. About where the Vincennes Trail first meets the shore of lake Michigan and Trail P, and near the Tibbitts Tavern, a landmark of pioneer days, the reputed camp site for French or American military, there was also a minor Indian village.

The wooded bluff here compares favorably with that of Evanston, the trails here converging to the north, trail P being identical with Lake Ave. At the southwest corner of Lake Ave & 42nd Place, in 1902, when "house builders" disturbed the slight gravel ridge here, the bones of an Indian skeleton accompanied by flint arrowheads and a very primitive stone implement were found and taken in charge by J. W. Jones. This Indian village was situated on the south end of the historic "Oak woods" which here extended west to Vincennes Ave.

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