Chicago stockyards and packinghouses
Packing house, Chicago, Illinois.
- Side
- Union
- Kind
- Packing house
- Where
- Chicago, Illinois
- Years
- 1861-1865
- Today
- Built over
CHICAGO STOCKYARDS
The Mississippi blockade and federal purchases of beef and pork for Union troops sent livestock to Chicago's railroad stockyards. Hog receipts rose from 392,000 in 1860 to 1,410,000 in the 1864-65 season. The yards became the Union Stock Yards in 1865.
Then
The Mississippi blockade and federal purchases of beef and pork for Union troops sent livestock to Chicago's railroad stockyards. Hog receipts rose from 392,000 in 1860 to 1,410,000 in the 1864-65 season, and cattle from 117,000 to 338,000 head.
Nine railroads bought 320 acres of marsh in 1864 for $100,000 and consolidated the yards into the Union Stock Yards, which opened on December 25, 1865.
Now
Built over
The Yards closed in 1971 and became business and industrial parks. The 1877 Union Stock Yard Gate on Exchange Avenue is a National Historic Landmark.
Lines owned by smaller railroads, Union Pacific and CN run through Chicago today.