Joliet ( JOH-lee-et, joh-lee-ET) is a city in Will and Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 census, the city was the third-largest in Illinois, with a population of 150,362.

In 1673, Louis Jolliet, along gone Father Jacques Marquette, paddled happening the Des Plaines River and camped on a big earthwork mound, a few miles south of present-day Joliet. Maps from Jolliet’s exploration of the area^{[citation needed]} showed a large hill or mound all along river from Chicago, labeled Mont Joliet. The mound has back been flattened due to mining.

In 1833, following the Black Hawk War, Charles Reed built a cabin along the west side of the Des Plaines River. Across the river in 1834, James B. Campbell, treasurer of the canal commissioners, laid out the village of “Juliet”, a defilement of “Joliet” that was plus in use at the time. Just past the economic depression of 1837, Juliet incorporated as a village, but to clip tax expenses, Juliet residents soon petitioned the let in to invalidate that incorporation.

In 1845, local residents changed the community’s declare from “Juliet” to “Joliet”, reflecting the native name. Joliet was reincorporated as a city in 1852. Cornelius Covenhoven Van Horne was nimble in getting the city its first charter, and because of this, he was elected Joliet’s first mayor. When the city far ahead built a additional bridge, it was named the Van Horne Bridge.