The Chicago River is a river that runs 156 miles (251 km) and flows through Chicago, including the downtown. Though not especially long, the river is notable for the 19th century civil engineering feats that directed its flow south, away from Lake Michigan, into which it previously emptied, and towards the Mississippi River basin. This was done for reasons of sanitation.

The river is also noted for the local custom of dyeing it green to commemerate St. Patrick's Day. Originally, the river flowed into Lake Michigan.

Its course jogged southward from the present river to avoid a baymouth bar, entering the lake at about the level of present day Madison Street. Today, the Main Stem of the Chicago River flows due west from Lake Michigan, past the Wrigley Building and the Merchandise Mart to Kinzie Street, where it meets the North Branch of the river. The North Branch is formed by the West Fork, the East Fork (also known as the Skokie River) and the Middle Fork, which join into the North Branch at Morton Grove, Illinois.

From downtown, the river flows south along the South Branch, and into the Illinois and Michigan Canal and Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. From there the water flows into the Des Plaines River and eventually reaches the Gulf of Mexico. Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, the Founder of Chicago, was the first non-Native American to establish a permanent residence near the Chicago River.

He built his farm on the northern bank at the mouth of the river in the 1780s. In 1808 Fort Dearborn was constructed on the opposite bank on the site of the present-day Michigan Avenue Bridge. At one time, and as late as 1830, the north branch of today's Chicago River was known locally as Guarie’s (or Gary's) River.

Guarie is a phonetic spelling of the name of an early settler/trader by the name of Guillory who lived along the Chicago river sometime around 1778.

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