page_title: DuPage River
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: DuPage River / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The West Branch of the w:DuPage River in w:Naperville, Illinois
context_page_description: The DuPage River is a 28.3-mile-long tributary of the Des Plaines River in the U.S. state of Illinois.
context_section_description: The first written history to address the name, the 1882 History of DuPage County, Illinois, relates that:
  The Du Page River had, from time immemorial, been a stream well known. It took its name from a French trader who settled on this stream below the fork previous to 1800. Hon. H. W. Blodgett, of Waukegan, informs the writer that J. B. Beaubien had often spoken to him of the old Frenchman, Du Page, whose station was on the bank of the river, down toward its mouth, and stated that the river took its name from him. The county name must have the same origin. Col Gurden S. Hubbard, who came into the country in 1818, informs the writer that the name DuPage, as applied to the river then, was universally known, but the trader for whom it was named lived there before his time. Mr. Beaubien says it is pronounced Du Pazhe (a having the sound of ah, and that the P should be a capital). This was in reply to Mr. Blodgett’s inquiry of him concerning the matter.
caption: The West Branch of the DuPage River in Naperville.
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