Illinois
Midwestern state of the USA; nicknamed Prairie State
Area:
146,100 sq km/56,395 sq mi
Capital:
Springfield
Cities:
Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, Decatur, Aurora
Physical:
Lake Michigan; the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, and Rock rivers; prairies;
Shawnee National Forest
Features:
Cahokia Mounds, the largest group of prehistoric earthworks in the
USA (a World Heritage Site); Nauvoo, founded in 1839 by the Mormons,
and their point of departure in 1846 on the trek that led them to Utah;
Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield; Abraham Lincoln National Historic
Park; Galena, a lead-mining town dating from the 1820s, with pre-Civil
War buildings, including the Dowling House (1826), the Belvedere Mansion
and Gardens (1857), and the Ulysses S Grant House (1860); Chicago, with
the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry, the
Sears Tower (the world's tallest building in 1974, almost 460 m/1,500
ft high), and the Rookery (1886) with a lobby designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright in 1905; Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, Oak Park; Ernest
Hemingway's boyhood home, Oak Park; the Dana Thomas House, Springfield,
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright 1903; gambling casinos on replicas of
19th-century Mississippi paddle boats
Industries:
Soya beans, cereals, meat and dairy products, machinery, electrical
and electronic equipment
Population:
(1995) 11,829,900
Famous People:
Jane Addams, Frances Cabrini, Clarence Darrow, Ernest Hemingway, Jesse
Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Lee Masters, Ronald Reagan, Carl Sandburg,
Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright
History:
Explored by Marquette and Joliet 1673; settled by the French in the
17th century; ceded to Britain by France 1763; passed to US control
in 1783; became a state in 1818. Much settlement began in 1825
following the opening of the Erie Canal. Spurred after the Civil
War by the phenomenal growth of Chicago, Illinois became a major
agricultural and industrial state, with heavy immigration. Labor
unrest was reflected in the Haymarket Riot (1886) and Pullman
Strike (1894). The importance of heavy industry declined after
1950, but Chicago remained a major transport, trade, and finance
centre, and the state a leader in agricultural income; Illinois
ranks first in agricultural exports and second in pig production.
The enormous Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is located
at Batavia.
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