Filmed on Wednesday, July 5 2023, I drive around downtown Joliet, IL in the rain to see what’s going on.
In 1673, Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette ventured up the Des Plaines River and camped out on a huge earthwork mound, a few miles south of present day Joliet.
Joliet created maps from his exploration and labeled this mound Mount Joliet. The mound was later flattened as a result of mining operations.
The first recorded resident of Joliet was Charles Reed in 1833. In 1834, the village of “Juliet” was laid out by James B. Campbell. In 1845, local residents changed the name from Juliet to Joliet, reflecting the original name.
The quarrying of “Joliet limestone” was a huge industry in the late 19th century, earning the city a nickname of “City of Stone”. At its peak, Joliet was shipping more than 3,000 rail car loads of Limestone per month across the midwest.
The Joliet Steel Mill opened in 1869, which attracted thousands of European immigrants to the area. The large manufacturing labor force in the city attracted many other industries, and Joliet soon became a regional hub of manufacturing. A huge variety of products were manufactured in Joliet – wire mills, stove companies, horseshoe factories, brick companies, machine manufacturers, canning companies, bridge builders, greeting cards and calendars, clothing, beer, pianos, windmills, and wallpaper were among the biggest industries.
In the 1970s, manufacturing left Joliet and by 1983 the unemployment rate was at 26%.
The local economy slowly recovered as Joliet transitioned from a manufacturing center to a commuter suburb for the Chicago area. Many Joliet residents commute to and work in adjacent Cook County.
Joliet has two casinos – Harrah’s Joliet and Hollywood Casino Joliet.
The Chicagoland Speedway, which hosted NASCAR races until 2019, is located in Joliet.
The largest local employer is Amazon, which has a distribution center in Joliet.
Joliet has been featured in multiple films including 2019’s “Working Man”, 1973’s “The Sting”, 1980’s, “The Blues Brothers”. The Joliet Prison (closed in 2002), has been the site of many other films and television shows including Fox’s “Prison Break”.
As of the census of 2020, 150,362 people resided in Joliet.
The racial makeup of the city was 45.15% White, 15.84% Black or African American, 0.1% Native American, 1.95% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.31% from other races, and 3.04% two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 33.59% of the population.
The median household income was $77,373 and the Per capita income was $31,390. 10.7% of the population were living below the poverty line.
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