Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois. The population was 23,463 at the 2000 census.
Blue Island is so named because it is situated on the south end of a glacial moraine that was once an island when Lake Chicago covered the surrounding area thousands of years ago at the end of the last ice age. Early pioneers gave the ridge the name because at a distance it looked like an island set in a trackless prairie sea. The blue color was attribut...
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Blue Island is a city in Cook County, Illinois. The population was 23,463 at the 2000 census.
Blue Island is so named because it is situated on the south end of a glacial moraine that was once an island when Lake Chicago covered the surrounding area thousands of years ago at the end of the last ice age. Early pioneers gave the ridge the name because at a distance it looked like an island set in a trackless prairie sea. The blue color was attributed to atmospheric scattering or to blue flowers growing on the ridge. From the Chicago Democrat, February, 1834:
"Nearly south of this town and twelve miles [19 km] distant is Blue Island. This name is particularly appropriate. It is a table of land about six miles [10 km] long and an average of two miles [3 km] wide, of an oval form and rising some forty feet out of an immense plain which surrounds it on every side. The sides and slopes of this table, as well as the table itself, are covered with a handsome growth of timber, forming a belt...
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