Illinois is the 21st U.S. state and is located in the Midwest region of the United States of America. The state is known for its large and diverse population, its balance of rural areas, small industrial cities, vast suburbs and great metropolis, its highly diverse economic base, and its central location that has made it a transportation hub for 150 years. It is this mixture of factory and farm, of urban and rural that makes Illinois a microcosm of the nation.
Addison Alsip Altamont Alton Annawan Antioch Arcola Arlington Heights Atlanta Aurora Bannockburn Barrington Beardstown Bedford Park Belleville Belvidere Bensenville Benton Bloomingdale Bloomington Bolingbrook Bourbonnais Bradley Bridgeview Buffalo Grove Burbank Burr Ridge Cairo Calumet City Calumet Park Canton Carbondale Carlinville Carlyle Carol Stream Casey Caseyville Centralia Champaign Charleston Chenoa Chester Chicago Chillicothe Collinsville Countryside Crystal Lake Danville Darien Decatur Deerfield Dekalb Des Plaines Dixon Downers Grove Du Quoin Dwight East Dubuque East Moline East Peoria Edwardsville Effingham El Paso Elgin Elk Grove Village Elmhurst Evanston Fairview Heights Farmer City Flora Forsyth Franklin Park Freeport Fulton Galena Galesburg Geneseo Geneva Gilman Glen Carbon Glen Ellyn Glendale Heights Glenview Grayville Greenville Gurnee Hampshire Hanover Harrisburg Harvard Harvey Hazel Crest Highland Highland Park Highwood Hillside Hoffman Estates Homewood Itasca Jacksonville Jerseyville Joliet Kankakee Kewanee Lake Bluff Lake Forest Lansing Le Roy Libertyville Lincoln Lincolnshire Lisle Litchfield Lombard Lyons Macomb Manteno Marion Markham Marshall Maryville Matteson Mattoon Melrose Park Mendota Metropolis Mettawa Mokena Moline Monee Monmouth Monticello Morris Morton Morton Grove Mount Carmel Mount Prospect Mount Vernon Mundelein Naperville Nashville Niles Normal North Aurora North Chicago Northbrook Northlake O Fallon Oak Brook Oak Forest Oak Lawn Oak Park Oakbrook Terrace Oglesby Okawville Olney Orland Park Oswego Ottawa Palatine Paris Paxton Pekin Peoria Peru Petersburg Pinckneyville Pontiac Pontoon Beach Princeton Prospect Heights Quincy Rantoul Richmond River Grove Riverwoods Robinson Rochelle Rock Falls Rockford Rolling Meadows Romeoville Rosemont Salem Savanna Savoy Schaumburg Schiller Park Sheffield Skokie South Beloit South Holland Springfield Staunton Stockton Streator Sycamore Tinley Park Troy Tuscola Ullin Urbana Vandalia Vernon Hills Wadsworth Warrenville Washington Waterloo Watseka Waukegan Wenona West Dundee West Frankfort Westmont Wheeling Willowbrook Wood Dale Woodridge Woodstock Zion
About 2000 Native American hunters inhabited the area at the time of the American Revolution, and by a small number of French villagers. American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s; they achieved statehood in 1818. Yankees arrived a little later and dominated the north, creating the metropolis of Chicago in the 1830s. The coming of the railroads in the 1850s made highly profitable the rich prairie farmlands in central Illinois, attracting large numbers of immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. Northern Illinois, strongly Republican, provided major support for Illinoisans Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. By 1900, factories were being rapidly built in the northern cities, along with coal mines in central and southern areas, attracting large numbers of immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was a major arsenal in both world wars; large numbers of blacks left the cotton fields of the South to come to Chicago, where they developed a famous jazz culture.
The state is named for the Illinois River which was named by French explorers after the indigenous Illiniwek people, a consortium of Algonquian tribes that thrived in the area. The word Illiniwek means "tribe of superior men."
The northeastern border of Illinois is Lake Michigan. Its eastern border with Indiana is all of the land west of the Wabash River, and a north-south line above Post Vincennes, or 87° 30' west longitude. Its northern border with Wisconsin is fixed at 42° 30' latitude. Its western border with Missouri and Iowa is the Mississippi River. Its southern border with Kentucky is the Ohio River. Illinois also borders Michigan, but only via a water boundary in Lake Michigan.
Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains, it has three major geographical divisions. The first is Chicagoland, including the city of Chicago, its suburbs, and the adjoining exurban area into which the metropolis is expanding. This region includes a few counties in Indiana and Wisconsin and stretches across much of northern Illinois toward the Iowa border, generally along Interstates 80 and 90. This region is cosmopolitan, densely populated, industrialized, and settled by a variety of ethnic-groups. Cook County is the most populous county in the state, with over 5.3 million residents in 2004.
Southward and westward, the second major division is central Illinois, an area of mostly flat prairie. The western section (west of the Illinois River) was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the distinctive western bulge of state. Known as the Land of Lincoln or the Heart of Illinois, it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers, figures prominently. Major cities include Peoria–the third largest metropolitan area in Illinois at 370,000, Springfield–the state capital, Decatur, Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana.
The third division is southern Illinois, comprising the area south of U.S. Route 50, and including Little Egypt, near the juncture of the Mississippi River and Ohio River. This region can be distinguished from the other two by its warmer climate, different mix of crops (including some cotton farming in the past), more rugged topography (the southern tip is unglaciated with the remainder glaciated during the Illinoian Age and earlier ages), as well as small-scale oil deposits and coal mining. The area is a little more populated than the central part of the state with the population centered in two areas. First, the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis comprise the second most populous metropolitan area in Illinois with nearly 600,000 inhabitants, and are known collectively as the Metro-East. Second, the Carbondale, Marion, West Frankfort, Herrin, Murphysboro area, is home to around 200,000 residents.
Collectively, all of Illinois outside the Chicago Metropolitan area is called "downstate Illinois".
In extreme northwestern Illinois, the Driftless Zone, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, occupies a small part of the state. Charles Mound, located in this region, is the state's highest natural elevation above sea level at 1,235 feet (376 m). The highest true elevation in Illinois is the Sears Tower with an elevation at the top of its roof of approximately 2,030 feet (the elevation of Chicago is approximately 580 feet and the height of the roof is approximately 1450 feet).
The floodplain on the Mississippi River from Alton to the Kaskaskia River is the American Bottom, and is the site of the ancient city of Cahokia. It was a region of early French settlement, as well as the site of the first state capital, at Kaskaskia which is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River.
Because of its central location and its proximity to the Manufacturing belt and Corn belt, Illinois is a national crossroads and transportation hub. Illinois has an extensive rail network transporting both passengers and freight. Chicago is a national Amtrak hub and in-state passengers are served by Amtrak's Illinois Service featuring the Chicago to Carbondale Illini and Chicago to Quincy Illinois Zephyr. In addition to the states rail lines, the Mississippi River and Illinois River provide major routes for the states agricultural interests.
O'Hare International Airport is one of the busiest airports in the world and is a major airport serving numerous domestic and international destinations. It is a hub for United Airlines and American Airlines, and a major airport expansion project is currently underway.
Going on a trip? Why not browse some of the luggage at eBags.com (external source)
Major U.S. Interstate highways crossing the state include: I-24, I-39, I-55, I-57, I-64, I-70, I-72, I-74, I-80, I-88, I-90, and I-94. Illinois carries the distinction of having the most primary (2-digit) Interstates pass through it among the 50 states. In 2005, there were 1,355 traffic deaths on Illinois roadways, the lowest in more than 60 years.
Your vacation. A time to lose yourself. And sometimes your luggage, too. Need Travel Insurance? Why not try Travel Guard (external source)
In the 20th century, Illinois emerged as one of the most important states in the union with a population of nearly 5 million. By the end of the century the population would reach 12.4 million. The Century of Progress world's fair was held at Chicago in 1933. Oil strikes in Marion County lead to a boom in 1937, and by 1939 Illinois ranked 4th in U.S. oil production.
Following World War II, Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, activated the first experimental nuclear power generating system in United States in 1957. By 1960, the first privately financed nuclear plant in United States, Dresden 1, was dedicated near Morris. Chicago became an ocean port with the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, in 1959. The seaway and the Illinois Waterway connected Chicago to both the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. In 1960, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's franchise in Des Plaines.
In 1970, the state's sixth constitutional convention authored a new constitution to replace the 1870 version. It was ratified in December. The first Farm Aid concert was held in Champaign to benefit American farmers, in 1985. The worst upper Mississippi River flood of the century, the Great Flood of 1993, inundated many towns and thousands of acres of farmland.
*Because of its nearly 400 mile length, Illinois has a widely varying climate. Monthly average temperatures range from a high of 88°F in the south during the month of August to a low of 10°F in the northwest during February. Average yearly precipitation for Illinois varies from just over 48 inches at the southern tip to around 35 inches in the northern portion of the state. Normal annual snowfall exceeds 38 inches in Chicagoland due to lake effect snow, while the south normally receives less than 14 inches. The highest temperature recorded in Illinois was 117°F, recorded on July 14, 1954, at East St. Louis, while the lowest temperature was -36°F, recorded on January 5, 1999, at Congerville.Lonely Planet Maps (external source)
Lonely Planet Language Guides (external source)
* This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Source wikipedia.
