JOLIET  , a

city and the county-seat of Will county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the township of Joliet, in the N.E. part of the state, on the Des Plaines river, 4o m . S.W. of Chicago . Pop . (1890), 23,264; (1900), 29,353, of whom 8536 were foreign-born, 1889 being German, 1579 Austrian, 1206 Irish and 951 Swedish; (1910 census) 34,670 . In addition there is a large population in the immediate suburbs: that of the township including the city was 27,438 in 189o, and 50,640 in 1910 . Joliet is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Chicago & Alton, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Michigan Central, the Illinois, Iowa & Minnesota, and the Elgin, Joliet & Eastern railways, by interurban electric lines, and is on the Illinois & Michigan canal and the Chicago Sanitary (ship) canal . The city is situated in a narrow valley, on both sides of the river . It is the seat of the northern Illinois penitentiary, and has a public library (in front of which is a statue, by S . Asbjornsen, of Louis Joliet), the township high school, two hospitals, two Catholic academies and a club-house, erected by the Illinois Steel Company for the use of its employees . There are two municipal parks, West Park and Highland Park; Dellwood Park is an amusement resort, owned by the Chicago & Joliet Electric Railway Company . In the vicinity are large deposits of calcareous building stone, cement and fireclay, and there are coal mines 20 M. distant . Mineral resources and water-power have facilitated the development of manufactures .

The factory product in 1905 was valued at $33,788,700 (29.3 % more than in 1900), a large part of which was represented by

iron and steel goods . There are large industrial establishments just outside the city limits . The first settlement on the site of Joliet (1833) was called Juliet, in honour of the daughter of James B . Campbell, one of the settlers . The present name was adopted in 1845, in memory of Louis Joliet (1645-1700), the French Canadian explorer of the Mississippi, and in 1852 a city charter was secured .