Lock & Mule derives its name and the concept for its design from the great history of Lockport, IL and the Illinois & Michigan (I&M) Canal, which began with Lock 1 in Lockport and ended in LaSalle with Lock 16. The I&M canal connected Lake Michigan and the St. Lawrence Seaway with the Gulf of Mexico via the great Illinois and the Mississippi Rivers. Mules were used to pull the packet boats on their several days long journey, bringing coal, lumber, furs, agricultural produce, and people from central Illinois via the port of Lockport, to what later became the City of Chicago.