Peoria Lake

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 40.7000, -89.5500

Formed by a broadening of the Illinois River, Peoria Lake or Lake Peoria was the site of Native American villages prior to European settlement in the area. In the nineteenth century, it was approximately twenty miles long and from one-half to one and a half miles wide at normal water levels. The city of Peoria developed on the northwest shore of the lake, where it terminates in a narrowing of the channel of the Illinois River.

The History of Peoria County Illinois (Chicago: Johnson, 1880), 448-49; J. R. M'Culloch, M'Culloch's Universal Gazetteer: A Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the Various Countries, Places, and Principal Natural Objects in the World (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1844), 2:571.