Summit is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,161 at the 2020 census. The name Summit, in use since 1836, refers to the highest point on the Chicago Portage between the northeast-flowing Chicago River and the southwest-flowing Des Plaines River located just north of the village. Argo is a subdivision annexed by Summit in 1911 when it was new. Named for the nearby cornstarch and baking powder manufacturing plant, it developed separately from the older part of the village. The name "Argo" is still widely used but is not part of the name of the village itself. Geography According to the 2010 census, Summit has a total area of , of which (or 93.93%) is land and (or 6.07%) is water. Most of Summit is in the floodplain of the Des Plaines River. History The area around Summit has been hunted and traveled through for 12,000 years but only continuously occupied since 900CE. When Europeans first arrived the area was inhabited or used by the Fox, Illini, Miami, Sauk, and Chippewa-Ottawa-Potawatomi tribes. In 1673 the Marquette-Joliet expedition arrived at the portage north of the village and went on to the location of Chicago. At that time the importance of a portage was noted. A local trading network developed from that time until the Native Americans were removed beginning in 1816. Surveyed in 1821, in 1830 land was for sale by the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commission. There may have been a tavern at "Summit Ford" in 1832, by 1835 there was a sub-divided settlement with a tavern, blacksmith shop, and stagecoach stop. "Summit Corners" was where westbound Archer Ave. turned south and Lyons-Summit Rd. (now approximately Lawndale Ave.) went west. Chicago politician "Long John" Wentworth bought much of the surrounding area and used it for farming. Between 1836 and 1848 the Illinois and Michigan Canal was built through the subdivision. Most of the canal workers were Irish laborers and many were able to buy property with their canal script pay. In 1850 gravel and clay pits were opened in the area for local use. After 1865 limestone quarries north of the canal provided jobs into the 1920s, when they were closed, often used as garbage dumps, then covered over. Today's Hanover Park is a filled gravel and clay pit. In 1856 the Joliet and Chicago Railroad (Chicago and Alton Railroad in 1862) built a line