Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the city was able to exploit its environmental
hinterland in the Midwest. At one level the
connection between Chicago and its surrounding
environment can be seen in the case of lumber
(Cronon, 1991: 148-206). The early expansion of
Chicago was reliant on the exploitation of the
timber resources that were to be found in the white
pine forests to the north of the city (see
Chapter 5
of this volume). Millions of tons of felled trees were
transported into Chicago during the nineteenth
century. This flow of timber was used in the con-
struction industry within the city. The exploita-
tion of woodlands also enabled the establishment
of a lumber district in Chicago, which specialized
in the production and distribution of timber
products (Cronon, 1991).
Urbanization in Chicago was further connected
to the environments of the American Midwest
through the emerging agricultural industry.
During the nineteenth century, Chicago developed
one of the earliest industrial-scale meat processing
industries (Cronon, 1991: 207-259). As the so-
called 'Great Bovine City of the World', Cronon
describes how Chicago was able to '[a]ssemble the
