Survey of the Prairie State

Illinois lies in the north-central part of the United States. It is bordered on the north by Wisconsin. To the west the Mississippi River separates Illinois from Iowa and Missouri. On the south the Ohio River forms the boundary with Kentucky. To the east is Indiana, with the Wabash River forming part of the boundary. The northeastern part of the state stretches along Lake Michigan for 63 miles (101 kilometers).

The state's greatest length, north to south, is 385 miles (620 kilometers). Its greatest width is 218 miles (351 kilometers), near the middle of the state. The total area is 56,345 square miles (145,933 square kilometers), including 700 square miles (1,813 square kilometers) of inland water surface. Illinois's Lake Michigan area is 1,526 square miles (3,952 kilometers).

Natural Regions

Climate

Most of Illinois has a continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. The extreme south has a near-tropical climate, with an average annual temperature about 11 degrees higher than that of the northern border. In the northeast Lake Michigan exerts some modifying influence along its shoreline. Average annual temperatures are about 50° F (10° C) in the north, about 53° F (11.7° C) in the central region, and about 59° F (15° C) in the south. Extreme temperatures have ranged from 117° F (47.2° C) at East St. Louis in the southwest to –35° F (–37.2° C) at Mount Carroll in the northwest.

Precipitation (rain and melted snow) in Illinois ranges from about 32 inches (81 centimeters) a year in some sections of the north to some 48 inches (122 centimeters) a year in the south. The growing season varies from about 160 days a year in a few areas of the north to some 210 days a year near the Ohio-Mississippi river junction in the extreme southwest.

Natural Resources

The state's greatest natural resource is its fertile soil. With the help of ample rainfall during the growing season, the land produces large crops and rich pasturage year after year. Other major resources are mineral wealth, especially coal and petroleum, and timber, which covers more than 10 percent of the area. The chief trees are oak, beech, hickory, and maple. Some pines have been planted in state forests.

Illinois has several natural advantages for commerce and industry. Its central location places it near both raw materials and large markets. It has access to the Great Lakes waterway as well as to the Mississippi River system. Many of the nation's chief railroads, airways, and highways cross the state, linking Illinois with all parts of the nation.

Many of the state's natural resources are protected and administered by the Department of Conservation, created in 1927. This agency includes divisions of forestry, wildlife, fisheries, natural heritage, and land management. The Department of Energy and Natural Resources includes a state water survey, which studies all water supplies; a state geological survey, which provides information on the efficient use and the development of natural resources; and a state natural history survey, which studies the plant and animal resources of the state. Another major state preservation department is the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

The Prairie State has also taken steps to support its human resources. Most of this work is done by five state agencies. The Department of Public Aid directs the administration of programs of old-age assistance, aid to dependent children, blind and other disability assistance, and aid to the medically indigent. The Public Health and Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities departments aid in detecting and control- ling disease and other illnesses. The Department of Children and Family Services supplements or substitutes for parental care and provides rehabilitation services. The Department of Corrections is empowered to supervise penal and corrective institutions.

People of Illinois

The earliest people known to live in the Illinois region were Mound Builders. These were prehistoric American Indians who left behind thousands of earth mounds that they had built up from the prairie. The largest of these is Monks Mound, in Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, which is located near East St. Louis in southwestern Illinois. This group of mounds is the site of the largest prehistoric Indian city north of Mexico and Monks Mound and was used as a substructure for ceremonial buildings. Scattered across the state there are also many smaller effigy mounds and burial mounds.

When Europeans entered the region during the late 1600s they found many Native Americans living in the area. The most important group was the Illinois, a loose confederation of several Algonquian-speaking tribes including the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Peoria, and Tamaroa. The Illinois tribes were later defeated and scattered by invading Indians from the north. Among these were the Sauk and Fox, who moved southward from Wisconsin, and the Potawatomi, who lived around the foot of Lake Michigan. In 1832 the Sauk and Fox were driven from the state during the Black Hawk War. By the end of the next year the remaining Illinois, the Potawatomi, Winnebago, Ottawa, Chippewa, and others had ceded their holdings and were moving west of the Mississippi.

The first permanent white settlers in the region were the French. Jesuit priests established missions at Cahokia in 1699 and Kaskaskia in 1703. Illinois remained largely French until after the American Revolution. Then the southern part of the area was populated by many Americans from the Southern and Southeastern states. The northern part of the region was mostly wilderness until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. After that, many New Englanders came to Illinois by way of the Great Lakes.

The Prairie State also attracted large numbers of European immigrants in the years before the American Civil War. Most of these were Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians, who settled in the northern half of the state. Other waves of immigrants arrived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. These people, chiefly from Central and Southern Europe, settled in the larger cities to work in factories and mills.

Today about 7 percent of the people of Illinois are foreign born. Of the total foreign population the largest groups are Germans, Poles, Italians, English, Irish, and Russians. Most of these people live in Chicago, which has the bulk of the state's Spanish-speaking and Asian population as well. Fifteen percent of the people are African American, and 40 percent of these live in Chicago.

Cities

Rockford, the second city in size, is the chief trade center of northwestern Illinois; its products include tools, hardware, textiles, metalworking machinery, and furniture (see Rockford). Illinois's third largest city is Peoria, in the north-central part of the state on the Illinois River. In a rich farm region with excellent rail and water transportation, Peoria has a large wholesale and retail trade. Nearby coalfields supply power for its many industries. (See also Peoria.)

Springfield, the capital of Illinois, is in the south-central part of the state; located in a rich farm area, it is an important railroad center (see Springfield, Ill.). East St. Louis, on the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis, Mo., is the western terminus of many railroads. Its industries include meat-packing, railroad equipment, rubber, and chemicals. About 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Springfield is Decatur. This city is noted for processing soybeans and corn products and for its railway shops. Other leading Illinois cities include Joliet, Aurora, and Naperville, all located in the Chicago metropolitan area.

Manufacturing

As a manufacturing state, Illinois is topped only by California, New York, and Ohio. Manufacturing industries employ about 16 percent of its workers. The annual value added by manufacturing is more than seven times the income from the state's farms. About two thirds of Illinois's plants and mills are located within the Chicago metropolitan area.

One of the chief industries in the state had its beginning in 1847 when John Deere founded a shop in Moline to sell plows and Cyrus McCormick set up a reaper (harvester) plant in Chicago (see McCormick, Cyrus Hall). Plows, harvesters, and other farm implements made in Illinois are used all over the world. The state leads all others in the manufacture of agricultural and construction machinery.

The second most important industry is the processing of food and related products, in which Illinois ranks second only to California. This includes the processing of corn products and the making of confectioneries and beverages—especially milk and carbonated drinks. The state ranks third nationally in making electrical machinery—including radios, television sets, and telephone and telegraph equipment. This industry is centered in Chicago and its suburbs.

Fourth in importance are basic chemicals and allied products. Next in value are printing and publishing in which the state ranks third after New York and California. Illinois usually leads the nation in fabricated metal products such as cutlery, hand tools, and hardware. Other major industries produce transportation equipment, primary metals, and rubber and miscellaneous plastics products.

Agriculture

Illinois has ranked among the chief agricultural states since about 1850. More than a third of the value of Illinois's farm production comes from the sale of livestock and livestock products. Its big crops are due largely to the black loam and level fields of the corn belt, an ideal terrain for agricultural machinery. Illinois has some 86,000 farms, averaging about 331 acres (134 hectares). About one fifth are now used primarily as homes or are farmed only part of the time.

The most valuable crop is corn, grown chiefly in the central part of the state. The widespread use of hybrid seed corn and fertilizer has enabled Illinois farmers to produce an average of 123 or more bushels of corn to the acre. Much of the annual crop remains on the farms to be fed to pigs and cattle. Illinois is the leading cattle state east of the Mississippi River and is second only to Iowa in pig raising. Sheep, chickens, eggs, and turkeys are also important.

The second most valuable field crop is soybeans, in which Illinois usually leads the nation. Soybean oil is used in many products. Wheat is grown extensively in the west and southwest, oats in the north. Hayfields are found throughout the state. Specialty crops include broomcorn, popcorn, and red-clover seed.

The northern Illinois counties are noted for their milk and other dairy products. Truck crops are grown near Chicago and other large cities. Apples and other fruits and vegetables are grown in the south.

Mining and Fishing

Illinois usually ranks among the first 12 states in value of mineral production. Most important are bituminous (soft) coal, in which Illinois usually ranks fifth, and crude petroleum. It is estimated that bituminous coal deposits lie underneath more than half the state, but most of the production is in the south-central section. The largest areas of production are in Perry, Randolph, Franklin, Saline, and Macoupin counties.

Most of the petroleum production comes from the west-central, south-central, and southeastern parts of the state. Other valuable minerals mined in Illinois include stone, sand and gravel, and cement. Hardin County is the main source of fluorspar in the United States. This extremely important mineral is used chiefly in the smelting of iron.

Much less important than mining is the Illinois fishing industry. The Mississippi River and its various tributaries yield valuable commercial catches of catfish, buffalofish, and carp. Perch and chub are the most valuable of the fish taken in Lake Michigan.

Transportation

Because of its central location, Illinois has long been a key link in the inland waterways of North America. It lies between the continent's two largest systems—the Great Lakes on the northeast and the Mississippi River on the west. Between these is the Illinois River, navigable for more than 270 miles (430 kilometers) from its junction with the Mississippi at Grafton. To connect this river with Lake Michigan, the Illinois and Michigan Canal was opened in 1848.

In 1900 this canal was replaced by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which reversed the flow of the Chicago River and connected the south branch of that river with the Des Plaines River (a tributary of the Illinois). The federal government acquired the canal in 1930, and after improvements were made, in 1933 the entire water highway from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi became known as the Illinois Waterway. Its importance increased when Chicago became a port for oceangoing ships through the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959.

The first railroad in the state was the state-owned Northern Cross, which made its first run in late 1838. Chicago got its start as a railroad center in 1848 when a steam railroad began operating on a short line west of the city. Four years later the first passenger train from the East arrived in Chicago. Meanwhile, in 1850, Congress granted the state more than 2 ¹/₂ million acres (1 million hectares) of land to aid in railroad construction. The Illinois Central Railroad was organized in 1851, and by 1856 it had completed a line from Chicago to Cairo. Today the total railroad mileage in Illinois is greater than that of any other state except Texas.

The most important path in the Illinois region was Portage Trail, between the headwaters of the Illinois and Chicago rivers. It had been used by the Native Americans long before the coming of Europeans. Another route across the northern part of the region was the Great Sauk Trail. It began near the site of Rock Island and ran eastward around the southern end of Lake Michigan then swerved up to Canada. Its counterpart in the south was the St. Louis Trace, or Vincennes Trail, which led from the Ohio River opposite present Louisville, Ky., to the Mississippi River at Cahokia. Hubbard's Trace, the link between Downstate and Chicago, was blazed by fur trader Gurdon Hubbard from Danville to Fort Dearborn in 1822–24. Vandalia was the western terminus of the National Pike, or Cumberland Road, for many years. (See also Roads and Streets.)

Illinois is now served by a network of state and federal highways. The heaviest concentration of roads is in the Chicago area. In 1953 the State Toll Highway Authority was established. It maintains and operates the more than 276-mile (444-kilometer) Illinois Tollway System, which serves Chicago and northern Illinois. Chicago is also a major aviation center, operating Chicago-O'Hare International Airport (usually ranked as the world's busiest), Midway Airport, and Meigs Field.

Recreation

The Prairie State has few spectacular scenic attractions. It does, however, have many lovely bluffs and wooded ravines along its rivers and lakes. Many of these places have been preserved as state parks. One of the most famous is Starved Rock. According to legend, a band of the Illinois Indians fled to the flat top of this rock to escape some Ottawa Indians who wanted to avenge their chief's murder. Surrounded by their enemies, they died of thirst and starvation.

The Chicago Portage National Historic Site preserves a part of the portage used by pioneers traveling between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. Chicago itself is a cultural and convention center that attracts many visitors. It has five major-league sports teams: baseball's Cubs and White Sox, basketball's Bulls, football's Bears, and ice hockey's Blackhawks.

Education

Public education in Illinois had its beginning when the Land Ordinance of 1785 reserved sections of public land for schools. In 1825 a law providing for the formation of school districts and establishing a compulsory tax to support schools was enacted, but the compulsory taxation clause was later revoked and the school system remained weak. Parents who could afford the cost sent their children to private schools. Finally, in 1854, the governor appointed a special officer of public instruction, and the school law of 1855 (the basis for today's public school system) provided for the compulsory taxation of local property, a state school tax, and the certification of teachers. The Community Unit School District Law was passed in 1947, and school districts were reduced from about 11,000 to less than 1,000 in 1990.

The state's largest institution of higher learning is the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign, with a campus at Chicago. There are also Southern Illinois University, at Carbondale, with a campus at Edwardsville and centers at Alton and Springfield; Northern Illinois University, at De Kalb; Illinois State University, at Normal; Western Illinois University, at Macomb; Eastern Illinois University, at Charleston; Sangamon State University, at Springfield; and Northeastern Illinois University, at Chicago.

Two of the best-known schools in the United States are Northwestern University, at Evanston, a Chicago suburb, and the University of Chicago, in the city's Hyde Park area. Chicago is also the site of Loyola University, De Paul University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Roosevelt University, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, North Park College, Theological and Mundelein College.

Other major institutions of higher learning in Illinois include Bradley University, at Peoria; Millikin University, at Decatur; Illinois Wesleyan University, at Bloomington; Elmhurst College, at Elmhurst; Augustana College, at Rock Island; Wheaton College, at Wheaton; Olivet Nazarene College, at Kankakee; Aurora University, at Aurora; Quincy College, at Quincy; Rockford College, at Rockford; Lake Forest College, at Lake Forest; Knox College, at Galesburg; and Monmouth College, at Monmouth.

Government and Politics

The first capital of Illinois was Kaskaskia, which served from 1818 to 1820, when it was replaced by Vandalia. In 1837 Springfield was selected as the new capital of the state, but the actual transfer was not made until 1839. Illinois is governed under its fourth constitution, which was adopted in 1970.

The chief executive is the governor, who is elected every four years and may succeed himself. The legislature consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Before 1983 each of 59 Illinois districts elected one state senator and three representatives. This created a legislature that some thought to be large and cumbersome. As a result, in 1980, the voters approved a measure that reduced the number of representatives to one from each of 118 districts. The number of senators remained at 59, each of their districts now comprising two representative districts. The Supreme Court, composed of seven justices, heads the judiciary.

In state and local politics voters outside of Cook County usually favor Republican candidates. The foundation for the now-traditional Democratic organization in Chicago was laid during the brief term of Anton Cermak, a Bohemian immigrant who was assassinated (by accident) in 1933. The party organization was consolidated during the six administrations of Richard J. Daley (see Daley). The city elected its first African American mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. The first three black members of the United States Congress in this century all represented Chicago—Oscar De Priest (1929–35), Arthur W. Mitchell (1935–43), and William L. Dawson (1943–70). Everett McKinley Dirksen of Pekin was the conservative minority leader in the United States Senate during the 1960s. In the governor's office, no one served longer than Jim Thompson, a Republican (1977–91).

In national elections the state has supported the Republican candidate for president about twice as often as it has the Democratic nominee. Lincoln and Grant were the only presidents elected from Illinois. The only Illinois-born president was Ronald Reagan of Tampico. Adlai E. Stevenson, a former Illinois governor, was the losing Democratic presidential candidate in the 1952 and 1956 elections.

Exploration and Settlement

The first white men to cross the Illinois prairies were Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet. From the Mississippi River they traveled up the Illinois, Des Plaines, and Chicago rivers to the site of Chicago on Lake Michigan in 1673. Beginning in 1680, another French explorer, La Salle, built forts on Starved Rock and Lake Peoria, claiming the region for France. (See also Jolliet; La Salle; Marquette.)

A French mission was founded at Cahokia in 1699. This became the earliest permanent white settlement in Illinois and the first center of French life in the upper Mississippi Valley. Kaskaskia was founded four years later. By 1750 the region contained some 2,000 French people and a few black slaves.

After the French and Indian War ended in 1763, France surrendered its claim to the territory east of the Mississippi; but the French settlers remained in their settlements. The British made no serious attempt to organize the region. When George Rogers Clark took over the settlements for the United States in 1778, the French inhabitants accepted the rule of Virginia (see Clark, George Rogers).

From the end of the American Revolution until Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818, settlement was confined largely to the southern third of the area. In the 1770s the settlement that later became Chicago was founded by Jean Baptist Point du Sable, a West Indian trapper of French and African parentage (see Du Sable). The only community in the north developed around Fort Dearborn, which was established in 1803 near the site of his Lake Michigan trading post.

Statehood

On Dec. 3, 1818, Illinois was admitted to the Union. Nathaniel Pope, territorial delegate to Congress, succeeded in having the northern boundary set at 42° 30′ instead of at 41° 39′. By this change a 60-mile (97-kilometer) strip, including the site of Chicago, became part of Illinois instead of Wisconsin.

At this time the new state had about 40,000 residents, largely concentrated along the Mississippi, Wabash, and Ohio rivers. During the next few years, however, many settlements were made in the central third of the state. Galena, in the northwest, drew hundreds of people to work in the lead mines after a large-scale smelter was established in 1823.

After 1830 the northern third of the state began filling up rapidly. This settlement provoked the Black Hawk War in 1832, the last Indian uprising in the state. Sauk and Fox Indians led by Black Hawk won the battle of Stillman's Run but were eventually forced to retreat across the Mississippi permanently (see Black Hawk).

Mormons founded the town of Nauvoo on the Mississippi River in 1839. Friction developed between them and their Gentile (non-Mormon) neighbors. Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Mormon leaders, were killed by a mob at Carthage in 1844. Two years later the Mormons began their long journey west to Utah. (See also Mormons; Smith, Joseph.)

In 1858 the whole country became interested in the debates on slavery staged in seven Illinois cities by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, who were bitter opponents for the United States Senate. Although Lincoln lost the Congressional race, he was elected the 16th president in 1860 and directed the nation through the Civil War. The military commander of the Union forces was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who owned a home in Galena. (He became the 18th president of the United States.) John A. Logan was another American Civil War general from Illinois. In 1865 Illinois was the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. (See also Douglas, Stephen; Grant; Lincoln, Abraham; Lincoln-Douglas Debates.)

The Modern State

After the American Civil War agricultural production grew rapidly, but industrial expansion made even greater strides. The rise of industrialization brought on a number of strikes and riots. Two of the most serious incidents were the Haymarket bombing of 1886 in Chicago and the Pullman Company strike in 1894. The champion of the workingman during these troubled times was John P. Altgeld. His term as governor (1893–97) was the only Democratic administration in Illinois between 1857 and 1913.

Chicago had been rebuilt after the disastrous fire of 1871 and for a time became the second largest city in the Western Hemisphere. Its world's fairs of 1893 and 1933–34 drew much attention. But the city was also notorious as the center of bootlegging operations before the repeal of prohibition. Martin Luther King, Jr., focused his open-housing campaign there because of hard-core discrimination against its large black population. Abroad the Chicago image remains a mixture of gangsters, tall buildings, and blues clubs.

Illinois has had many leaders in social reform. Among them were Frances Willard, temperance worker; Jane Addams, social worker; Dwight Moody, evangelist; Jesse Jackson, African American activist; and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, anti-lynching crusader who worked for black woman suffrage. (See also Addams; Jackson, Jesse; Moody; Willard, Frances.)

In 1950, after five earlier failures, the voters of Illinois approved a Gateway Amendment, making it easier to amend the state constitution. As a result, a reapportionment amendment was ratified in 1954. After the legislature failed to reapportion itself as required, a bipartisan commission redistricted the state in 1965, giving greater representation to Cook County. (See also United States, “North Central Plains”.)