The History of Lemont St. James Academy Lemont (population 13,098) is located in far northeastern Illinois in the southwest corner of Cook County, about 25 miles southwest of downtown Chicago on Lemont Road between Interstate Highway 55 and Illinois Route 171. The Des Plaines River and the Sanitary Drainage and Ship Canal both flow to the northwest of town. The Amtrak/Atchison, Topeka, & Sante Fe (ATSF) Railroad has tracks that travel through Lemont as well. Lemont has a very long and storied history. According to the website address of http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/736.html, the following is a summary of that history: The area in which Lemont is now located was first settled in the 1830’s. Attempts to build a town in the area occurred in 1836 (Keepataw) and 1839 (Athens). However, it was the building of the Illinois & Michigan Canal in 1848 that led to the town of Lemont being created. Lemont was officially incorporated as a town in 1876. |
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