This chapter assesses the implications of natural accretion, unauthorized landfilling, and a legally sanctioned public works project on the neighborhood known today as Streeterville. It illustrates the three periods following the struggle for control of the land of Streeterville: the first was relatively decorous, consisting largely of litigation over rights to land formed by natural accretion, the second was intense and largely extralegal, and the third period was when the wealthy landowners who claimed the land by riparian rights consolidated their control over the area, abetted by construction undertaken by institutions of impeccable social standing, such as Northwestern University. The chapter investigates why it took so long for the struggle over Streeterville to be resolved, arguing resolution came only when the claimants with the most resources started to build substantial structures on the land. It also examines why the filled land in this area of the lakefront is overwhelmingly held in private hands, whereas the land south of the Chicago River, in what is now Grant Park, is public. Ultimately, the chapter reviews how the public trust doctrine was invoked in challenging the artificial filling of submerged land in Streeterville, and analyzes the Illinois Supreme Court decision following the case.
Owens Valley and the Public Trust
