In Prairie Passage, the canal's 150(th) anniversary is commemorated in some 250 stunning photographs, many of them by the renowned Edward Ranney, with a preface from the always fascinating William Least Heat-Moon. Tony Hiss's text celebrates the saga of the once mighty waterway and characterizes the development of the Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor over the past fifteen years as indicative of how America has come of age and how it is renewing itself "by settling down and appreciating it".
The book is planned for release as part of the sesquicentennial observance of the canal, to begin April 19, 1998, with an exhibit of Ranney's photographs and earlier images of the area, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Subsequent features of the observance will include installation of a portion of the exhibit at the Illinois State Museum's Lockport Gallery in July 1998 and a smaller traveling exhibit in towns throughout the canal corridor.
