It has always been thought that one of earliest recorded tornadoes in the Chicago area struck on May 22, 1855, just east of Norwood Park, but thanks to Chicago historian John Swenson, we now know that a tornado occurred here 74 years earlier in 1781.
Swenson found evidence of the tornado while researching the journal of a French businessman, possibly from New Orleans, who was traveling by canoe through the Chicago area in 1781. The journal, hand-written in French, was discovered among the Thomas Jefferson papers in the Library of Congress. The journal records the businessman’s travels up the Illinois and Des Plaines rivers to a point near Mud Lake at the Chicago Portage (the current site of the town of Stickney).
He described storm damage at the woods near Portage Creek as a terrible ouragan, allant de l’ouest l’est …. Translated, “a terrible hurricane moving from west to east had hit the area.” He recorded that large trees were uprooted, but that the leaves were still green, a sign that the storm had just occurred. Continuing his trip across the south tip of Lake Michigan, he saw a damage path of similar intensity resume at Rivire du Chemin (Trail Creek) near Michigan City, Ind. The damage width was deux arpents de large (384 feet), and he also noted that a large flock of passenger pigeons that had been caught up in the storm had washed onshore. The extensive tree damage in a narrow path (about 125 yards wide) implies that a tornado had traversed the area from Portage Creek to Michigan City just days before his arrival, making this storm the Chicago area’s earliest tornado on record.
Sources: John F. Swenson; www.earlychicago.com; Thomas Jefferson papers; “Significant Tornadoes,” Tom Grazulis
WGN-TV/Steve Kahn
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
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