Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

Nineteenth-century advancements such as the grain elevators, lumber yards, and stockyards contributed to American’s forgotten connection to and sustenance from the natural landscape. The changing ecosystems and growth economies of a metropolitan city such as Chicago depend on the development of the many outer-lying regions, or hinterlands. First nature, the natural world, is dictated by human utility and influenced by conditions in their immediate environment. Second nature, human-imposed restrictions placed upon the natural world, influences species and ecosystems miles away. Distance from the city, cost of transportation, supply and demand, and price played an ever more important role in determining the shape of the landscape.

Though difficult, paths of capital flow between city and country can be traced by examining how debtors and creditors arrange themselves in communities. While some relationships between creditors and borrowers do not represent the entire population, bankruptcy records are useful because they are commercial in nature. Examples such as the large sawmill, Garden City Manufacturing and Supply Company of Chicago; Ferdinand C. Lighte, who owned a piano business; prominent lumber dealer Freeland B. Gardner; furniture firm of McCabe, Wilkins, and Spaulding, and many other businesses reveal the regional trade relationships in the area.