Bike Tours, Walking Tours, Drive/Hike Tours, Seasonal Haunted Tours or a custom tour to fit your needs.

We show you the good, bad & Ugly of our area.

In the 1830’s the Illinois & Michigan Canal made us a boon town with all the good, bad & ugly that can come with that growth. Awesome Ottawa Tours shares the real, true & sometimes unflattering history of Starved Rock Country. See where Alson Woodruff executed the massacre that ended the Irish Rebellion on the I&M Canal. Hear the gruesome story of David Moore found bludgeoned to death in Allen Park. Then the investigation, arrest and subsequent hanging of his murderers.

Plus more, while surrounded by an America in Bloom City and a Downtown on the Register of Historic Places.

You’ll feel like a pioneering local after our tours

From stoic Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln & Douglas Debates to the sad events of the Radium Girls, Ottawa has seen many highs and lows. We were designed as a government city at the end of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, expediting the statehood of Illinois.

We’ve found the history that was lost to time.

Research is the Awesome Ottawa Tours Difference.

We are inspired by our love of Starved Rock Country, history, nature and our passion to offer it all to you. We are not only an awesome tour we are your personal concierge to this great area.

Don’t just visit Ottawa, Illinois dive in, roll around, breath it in!