Rubber Ducks and Forgotten Waterways

July 4, 2011 was a perfect summer day. It was perfect because it was warm and sunny.  It was perfect because it was a key summer holiday. I hope I don’t have to explain which holiday that would be.

I promised my nieces that they could accompany me in the Oak Lawn Fourth of July Parade as part of the Chamber of Commerce’s float. After that, we would watch the rubber ducks go down the Oak Lawn Creek toward the Oak Lawn Lake.  Volunteers from the Oak Lawn Fire Department ran the race. 

I bought duck number 69. I really didn’t expect to win. I rarely win these types of things. Winning wasn’t the motivation. This was a fun way to help out the Children’s Museum which oddly enough got its start in the Lakeshore Park field house, next to the Lake. 

Our Duck Race was no doubt inspired by the Windy City Rubber Ducky Derby, which is held in August on the main branch of the Chicago River. That event started in 2005 to help raise money for Special Olympics Illinois. 

There was a time not so long ago when a rubber duck might have melted in what was a very polluted Chicago river. These days, members of Friends of the Chicago River go canoeing on it. There are now even quant walkways that zigzag along its shores.

I tend to think of the Oak Lawn Lake and its tributaries much like the old Chicago River – polluted and stinky in spots. There are real live ducks on the Oak Lawn Lake. People do walk and bike along it, though the paths don’t go that far.

Our lake was born out of a long battle with water, swamps and mosquitos. It was dredged in the early 1900s as a flood control project for Stony Creek. People used to swim and fish in it back in the day. I've even heard old stories of Native Americans and French settlers using the waterways to trade and hunt.

There are two creeks that flow through Oak Lawn. Most are aware of Stony Creek which cuts through southern Oak Lawn. Stony Creek flows through the Stony Creek Golf Course and the Wolf Wildlife Refuge. It is also wedged between houses and railroad tracks. Oak Lawn Creek runs almost entirely underground through storm sewer pipes.

You can’t see the Oak Lawn Lake from 95th Street. The corner of 95th and 54th Avenue has store fronts on it. Oak Lawn Creek flows underground starting somewhere near Advocate Christ Medical Centerl and eventually passing by the Oak Lawn Library and Village Hall. 

That is the source of the water in Oak Lawn Lake. Two large pipes open up just behind the storefronts south of 95th street and mark the beginning of the lake.  The start of the lake is anything but majestic.

I thought it was interesting to have the ducks on the creek.  Other than the creation of the Wolf Wildlife area, most of the creek has been lost in the Oak Lawn's residential and commercial sprawl. 

Perhaps the duck race will be an annual event. Who knows, it may inspire residents to push for greater access to the creek. Some day we may have canoeing on the creek. Stranger things have been known to happen. For now, however, we can settle for a fun post-parade event that will bring people to a mostly forgotten Oak Lawn waterway.