O  ne day, roughly 10,000 years ago, a moraine  gave way.  The moraine, or natural levee, was near what is today called Kankakee.  It, as well as many other moraines, was holding back a huge lake.  The lake was the receding remnant of the last wave of glaciations that scraped Illinois into the third flattest state.  And on this day time and pressure found the weakest link.  

    The Kankakee Torrent began to cut a path westward. Waiting for its arrival was a huge empty valley just east of what is today called Peoria.  The flow of the water that shaped this now-empty valley had been diverted as far west as Quincy by an earlier glaciation 100,000 years ago.  Taking the path of least resistance the Kankakee Torrent turned south, filling the Mississippi's old shoes all the way to just north of St. Louis, and became the Illinois River.  Experts estimate it took all of 48 hours.

    One day, roughly 25 years ago, a windsurfer was driving toward the Illinois River near Peoria. Waiting for his arrival was a valley filled with steady wind and white caps.  He parked and stared out at the river.  He wondered what windsurfing on it would be like, he being the first. He un-strapped his gear, rigged, and found himself out in the middle of the river completely stoked. Experts estimate, with the tie-on boom, it took all of 15 minutes.

Peoria