Blue Island

Blue Island is in Cook County, Illinois, and is one of Chicago's southern suburbs. Its population was 23,463 at the 2000 census. The city of Blue Island received its name because it is situated south of a ridge of land that was once an island when the glacial Lake Chicago covered the area thousands of years ago. Early pioneers gave the ridge the name because at a distance it looked like an island in the middle of a blue prairie sea. The color has attributed to a bluish mist and to blue flowers growing on the ridge.