George Wellington "Cap" Streeter (c. 1837 – January 22, 1921) was an American who became infamous in Chicago for his real estate schemes and oftentimes bizarre eccentricity.
During a storm on July 10, 1886, the former Mississippi River boat captain and circus owner ran his steamboat, the 35-ton Reutan, onto a sandbar 451 feet (137 m) off Chicago's north shore near the foot of Superior Street.
[3] Unable to move the vessel, which slowly silted into place, Streeter claimed it made up the independent "United States District of Lake Michigan" and thereby was not subject to the laws of Illinois or Chicago.
[4] Ever since the downtown cleanup after the Great Fire in 1871, Lake Michigan had been used as a dump by building contractors looking to get rid of backfill and general rubble.
As the landmass grew, collecting more dumped rubble as well as silt from the lake, Streeter began to issue deeds to the land to others who saw themselves as "homesteaders" in the growing city of Chicago.
Streeter's fight for what he considered his land continued until his death on January 22, 1921, although he and his second wife had left Streeterville to move to East Chicago, Indiana, in 1918.
The Streeters' heirs continued to lay claim on the land until April 1928, when the courts ruled in favor of Chicago Title and Trust.
Contractor Hank Brusser told the court that Streeter asked him to fill in portions of the shoreline in order to create confusion over land titles.
He sold shoreline belonging to Fairbank, the William Ogden estate, the Farwell family, Potter Palmer, the Pine Street Land Association and the Chicago Title and Trust Company.
The reality was that the Lincoln Park Board had worked to fill in the shoreline in that area, so that they could build Lake Shore Drive on the infill.
To bolster his claims, to pressure owners to pay him off, and to assuage those who had bought lots from him in earnest, Streeter staged a series of "invasions", when he would lead a small group of squatters carrying shacks to the lake shore to quickly set up settlements.