In 1673 French Explorer Louis Joliet and Jesuit missionary Father Pierre Marquette left Green Bay, Wisconsin, by canoe in search of a western passage to the Pacific.

As they traveled into the Spanish-controlled area of Louisiana, they realized that the mighty Mississippi River drained into the already well-known Gulf of Mexico.

The discovery of “Le Portage” was part of the impetus that led to Chicago becoming a center for world trade.

Today, a statue stands in Lyons at the Chicago Portage National Historic Sight just north of Interstate 55 along Harlem Avenue, commemorating this historic National Heritage Corridor which stretches southwest through La Salle, Illinois.

Mayor William Smith, for whom a park was named, was being subjected to a federal corruption investigation when he died from cancer in 1989.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the small town was littered with strip clubs and bars along its Ogden Avenue corridor.

However, the village changed dramatically in the 1990s, and none of the strip clubs and most licensed bars no longer exist.

Lyons is a working-class area, though much of the nearby manufacturing work has dried up (e.g., Electro-Motive & Reynolds Aluminum) small specialty businesses have emerged.

[citation needed] The United States Postal Service operates the Lyons Post Office at 7836 Ogden Avenue.

[13] Pace provides bus service on multiple routes connecting Lyons to destinations across the region.