Cedar Fork begins near the Interstate 74 and U.S. Route 34 interchange and flows for 48 miles. It meanders through Warren and Henderson Counties before joining Henderson Creek and emptying into the Mississippi River near Lock and Dam #18. In its early days it was a clean, clear creek. During Carl Sandburg's youth, it was fragrant and polluted.

The pioneers considered the seven hundred square miles comprising Knox County to be well watered. Many creeks were flowed across the prairie. Producing wells were dug by hand to as little as fifteen feet. The invention of the auger drilling machine in the 1830s made the work much easier. By the 1890s steam machines were being used.

As Galesburg grew in population, there was a greater need for more water. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad had drilled a deep well to meet its needs. The railroad later excavated a lake in the Court Creek valley east of Galesburg and piped the water to its yards. As business increased the railroad created  Lake Bracken and Lake Storey for use as sources of water in their steam engines.

 In the nineteenth century, the Brown Corn Planter Works and Frost Manufacturing Company had deep wells to supply water for their manufacturing needs. The City of Galesburg placed cisterns around the city for fire protection needs. Homeowners drilled wells on their lots for domestic water use. Deep wells were sunk east of the city near Court Creek. As water shortages continued there was more public concern. It would take many decades before the problem was solved.

In those days people had the idea that streams were self-cleaning. But more and more detritus was being dumped into Cedar Fork and its crooked path inhibited a constant flow of water. If there were heavy rains, the creek water would inundate the downtown area. In 1924 a large flood caused $1.5 million in damage.

A good many residents of Galesburg talked about the problem, but didn't seem to know what to do about it. In March of 1908, the Galesburg Muncipal Improvement Association met at the Public Library. Reverend Stuart R. Campbell, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, attended the meeting and  said: “In coming to this city a stranger last June, two things struck me as being particularly obnoxious and had I had the power I would have stretched out my hand and removed them at once. The first was that stream which flows merrily through the center of your city and which to my mind in its present condition is a shame and a disgrace and which is always the subject of unfavorable remark on the part of visitors to your city.

“If nothing could be done with the stream itself, at least the banks need not be made the dumping ground for old tin cans and all sorts of things disagreeable to the eye, the nose and every faculty of the person who wishes to see his city beautiful.” Campbell also mentioned the dirty streets in Galesburg.

A 1913 newspaper article reported attorney Fletcher Carney had reviewed the old city records in order to provide light on the continuing Cedar Fork controversy. As early as1850 property owners had petitioned against the nuisance caused by a saw mill on the banks of Cedar Fork. Over the years, a number of court injunctions forced the city to make provision for sewer connections which helped to make the creek less of an open sewer.

Another twenty-five years would pass before the city, the railroads and the sanitary district would straighten and pave the channel of Cedar Fork and combine it with the sanitary treatment facility.

It is interesting to note that the residents of the fine Victorian homes north of downtown Galesburg daily traversed Cedar Fork to go to their businesses in the morning. In the evening they crossed the creek again to go home for the night. Did they not see or smell the stream on those trips?