The author's interest in the region was aroused several years ago as a result of public propaganda and a petition to the Federal Government by a group of the Izaak Walton League to restore at least a part of the original marsh-swamp, once nationally famous for its wild life, particularly wild fowl. Studies of this type especially recommend themselves today in connection with the nation's agricultural and conservational readjustment policies. The Kankakee country represents essentially an intermorainal marsh reclaimed valley extending from South Bend, Indiana, southwestward to Momence, Illinois. Down the wide, flat-floored valley coursed the original meandering Kankakee River, now a series of straight ditches. The Kankakee is located in the more favorable humid section east of the Mississippi.
Demographical relations are no less significant.
In the eyes of the reclamationist a half century later this same general scene reinterprets itself as an open prairie, practically unencumbered by a forest cover, with a flat valley floor, a high water table, and a presumably rich alluvial river bottom soil, located within 50-100 miles of the greatest stock and grain market in the world. The cultural subtractions and additions incident to the drainage operations have modified almost beyond recognition the general areal picture of the prereclamation period. But the soil conditions of the flattish marsh areas appear, for the most part, to have been known only superficially and classified categorically with the common types of river bottom and marsh lands.