A Chicago Fire "what if...."

What if Chicago had not been able to pull itself together after the Great Chicago Fire (it's possible; the devastation was enormous): WHAT EFFECT WOULD THIS HAVE HAD ON THE MIDDLE WEST (PARTICULARLLY OTHER CITIES)? • Could St. Louis have regained its old dominance, or had the Civil War and the increasing east/west commerce pretty much ended the possiblity that that city's north/south Mississippi River dominance could have such power? • Would another Great Lakes city taken on the role of Chicago, or would the Midwest have ended up more like the South, where one major city did not dominate. If a city did arise to take Chicago's place, would it have likely been Cleveland due to its access to east-west trade from the northeast to California? • Did existing concentration of rail lines and the major commodity exchanges have created a situation that the nation would have rebuilt Chicago even if Chicago couldn't have rebuilt itself? • What might Chicago itself be like today if it lost its dominance in 1871?>