Bubbly Creek facts for kids
Bubbly Creek is a special nickname for a part of the Chicago River. It's actually the South Fork of the river's South Branch. This creek forms the border between two neighborhoods in Chicago: Bridgeport and McKinley Park.
The creek got its unusual name because of bubbles that used to rise from its bottom. These bubbles were caused by gases from old waste, like blood and animal parts, that were dumped into the river by meatpacking businesses. This happened a long time ago, in the early 1900s, when many meat factories were located near the Union Stock Yards in Chicago.
The Story of Bubbly Creek
A famous writer named Upton Sinclair wrote a book called The Jungle. This book was a type of report that showed the difficult and often dirty conditions in the meatpacking industry in America.
In his book, Upton Sinclair described Bubbly Creek. He explained that it was like a large open sewer because all the waste from the meatpacking factories flowed into it. He wrote that the creek was always moving, as if huge fish were swimming in it, but it was actually the gases bubbling up. These bubbles could be quite large, sometimes two or three feet wide!
Pollution and Its Effects
The pollution in Bubbly Creek was so bad that grease and other waste would sometimes become solid on the surface. It looked like a strange, thick layer, almost like hardened lava. There were even stories of chickens walking on this solid surface.
Sometimes, the pollution on the creek's surface would even catch fire and burn strongly. The fire department had to come and put out these fires. This shows how polluted the creek was back then. Over time, people realized how bad the pollution was, and efforts began to clean up the river.
Images for kids
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A man standing on slaughterhouse-derived waste in Bubbly Creek in Chicago in 1911.
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Bubbly Creek and Bridgeport Village
