Joliet, Il was originally named Juliet, after the daughter of early settler Charles Reed, was not always the boom town it is today, staking claim to the title of Illinois quickest-growing-town in the 2000s. But its always been a heartland of the heartland. And its always been integral for that reason. Lower housing costs and living expenses–combined with its close location to Chicago–have spurred on Joliet, Ils recent surge. But its growth has come in waves, and always for reasons tied around its economic positioning between the Chicagoland Illinois core and rural belt dominating its interior. Joliet, Il.s first barrage came for its positioning on the Des Plaines, a river feeding north into the Michigan. On the citys incorporation (and subsequent reincorporation) in 1837 and 1852 respectively, the principal source of town income relied on this waterway–as a transport corridor for clays and iron mined nearby in the Des Plaines basin. Steel would later add to that rivers capacity, when its rich iron resources became milled in Joliet, Il.–right at source of the needed irons extraction. With temperatures and rainfall considerably tempered by the Driftless Basin lying to the west, Joliet grew and grew–support industries like retail (especially in the form of such establishments as gambling-houses and saloons) taking up permanent residence in a town of forgiving freetime for the rough-and-tumble workers. Throughout the next century, all these industries (primary and support alike) matured–and a solid steel-belt urbanity grew up in its place. Today (despite suffering economic setbacks in the 1980s) this manufacturing epicenter is one of the few to have survived–and offering an attractive proving ground for the outwelling of suburbanites seeking economic relief from rents and Chicagoland prices. This assortment of working-class history and middle-class accommodation made it a feature location in the film Blues Brothers, and also raised such personalities as gruffy journalist Mort Kondracke and urbane comedian Andy Dick.
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