Fox River Valley

The Fox River Valley and the communities nestled along its banks, where much of the fictional story of Little Woods takes place, are depicted in the image below. 

 

Evan Shelby and William Franklin arrived in the Fox Valley in the fall of 1833 to evaluate the land known as the Little Woods that would become St. Charles, Illinois in 1874.

 

However, they did not break ground until spring, 1834.  

 

In documents found at the St. Charles Heritage Center, Mrs. Lydia Franklin noted the presence of approximately 300 Potawatomi in the area as of 1834. H. H. Tanner’s Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History (1997) also marks a map with a Potawatomi village in the area without identifying the name of its chief or its clan affiliation.

 

No involvement of the first white settlers of St. Charles, Illinois or their families is stated or implied in the fictional story of Little Woods.

 

The Schingoethe Center at Aurora University also provides an extensive library on Native-American history. The region of Aurora, Illinois was known as the Big Woods, where the Potawatomi war chief Waubonsee and his Thunder Clan lived and hunted in 1833.

 

 

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