Plainfield
Village
Village Hall in Plainfield, Illinois
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Will, Kendall
Township	Plainfield (Will Co.) Wheatland (Will Co.) Na-Au-Say (Kendall Co.) Oswego (Kendall Co.)
Coordinates	41°37′2″N 88°12′10″W / 41.61722°N 88.20278°W / 41.61722; -88.20278
Area	12.4 sq mi (32 km2)
- land	12.4 sq mi (32 km2)
Population	37,334 (2007)
Timezone	CST (UTC-6)
- summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Postal code	60544, 60585, 60586
Area code	815 and 779
Location of Plainfield within Illinois
Wikimedia Commons: Plainfield, Illinois
Website: http://www.plainfield-il.org/

Plainfield is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2007 special census, the population is 37,334.

The Village includes land in Plainfield and Wheatland townships. Part of Plainfield is located in Kendall County (Na-Au-Say and Oswego townships). With the growth in the Chicago suburbs in the 1990s and 2000s, the village has seen a building boom and a rapid population increase, from 4,500 in 1990 to 13,000 in 2000 to over 37,000 in 2007. Based on estimates created by the village and state government, Plainfield's population could grow as large as 120,000 by 2030.^[1] Plainfield is also the fastest growing village in Will county.^[2]

The Village has established a community Preservation Commission and historic preservation ordinance. It is the home of the Lake Renwick Preserve, a county forest preserve used for birdwatching and other activities.

History[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

The area was called Walkers' Grove until it was platted as Plainfield in 1841. It was originally settled by a large community of Potawatomi, and the land was later bequeathed to the United States as part of the Treaty of St. Louis (1816) with the Council of the Three Fires. Indian Boundary Road aligns with the western border of the tract of land originally ceded.

The earliest Europeans in the area were French fur traders. The first European settler in the area was James Walker, who traveled with his father-in-law, Methodist Reverend Jessie Walker traveled here in 1826 where he established a small mission for the Potawatomi Indians. James Walker, Jesse Walker's son-in-law, traveled with him and became the first European to claim land in the area in 1828.^[3]

In 1828, James Walker, in the company of several men, erected a sawmill around which the settlement of Walkers' Grove developed. It is a beautiful place.

Plainfield is identified as the oldest community in Will County because the earliest settlement of Walkers' Grove was established on the banks of the DuPage River by 1828. However, the actual Village of Plainfield was platted immediately north of Walkers' Grove in 1834 by Chester Ingersoll. The separate community of East Plainfield was platted in June 1836 by James Mathers who began selling lots in July 1836. In addition he also constructed a gristmill and a mill race west of Water Street. Water Street would later become Plainfield-Naperville Road. Ingersoll's Planefield (Plainfield)which comprised lots in Section 16, along with Mather's East Plainfield lots in Section 10 and Levi Arnold's plat of Section 9 all became joined to create the present-day village after the death of Levi Arnold's in 1845.

Walkers' Grove flourished because of the DuPage River and established routes to Fort Dearborn in Chicago, as well as to Ottawa. Reuben Flagg hauled lumber from Walker's mill to Chicago in order to erect the first two frame structures in the city (P.F.W. Peck House and the George Dole Forwarding House). Chicago also depended upon the settlement for mail and supplies. This led to Plainfield being known as "The Mother of Chicago."^{[by whom?]}

The Flanders House in Plainfield, Illinois.

The community's early prosperity was stunted when the Illinois & Michigan Canal opened in 1848, because the Village was not located along the canal. Located within the Village are numerous Greek Revival, upright-and-wing cottages,^{[clarification needed]} a school built in 1847 (which may be^{[weasel words]} the oldest surviving one-room schoolhouse in Illinois^{[citation needed]}), and a number of early-19th-century homes. Plainfield currently has three buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Plainfield House, Flanders House and a 1928 Standard Oil Gas Station.^[4]

Plainfield abolitionists offered food and shelter to runaway slaves following the Underground Railroad.^[5]

At one time, the two longest paved highways in the world (Lincoln Highway and U.S. Route 66) crossed within Plainfield. The highways only crossed each other twice and both locations are in Will County. The other location is in neighboring Joliet.

Plainfield is also the birthplace of Eddie Gardner, one of the pilots credited with establishing the transcontinental air mail routes for the United States Postal Service. The earliest architects associated with buildings in Plainfield are J.E. Minott of Aurora; G. Julian & John Barnes of Joliet; and Herbert Cowell of Joliet and Plainfield.

On August 28, 1990, the Plainfield Tornado, an F5 tornado, went through the Village and parts of Crest Hill and Joliet, killing 29 people and injuring hundreds.

North Central College was first founded in the village in 1861 as Plainfield College.

Plainfield Public Library District was first founded in the village in 1925 as the Nimmons Village of Plainfield Free Public Library.

A population explosion started to take form at the start of the 21st century caused by the sale of many farms. This made way for a large number of new home subdivisions. Before the population boom, Plainfield was primarily an agricultural town.

Certain older parts of Plainfield have suffered from extreme traffic congestion. Before Interstate 55 was built just east of the town in the late 1950s, U.S. Route 30, The Lincoln Highway and U.S. Route 66 (sometimes referred to as "The Mother Road") merged into one street for three blocks on what is now Illinois Route 59. This merge is now only shared by U.S. 30 and Lincoln Highway, between Plainfield/Joliet Road on the south to Lockport Street on the north, but continues to be an area of heavy traffic congestion even outside heavy commuting periods.^{[original research?]}

Geography[link]

Plainfield is located at 41°37′2″N 88°12′10″W / 41.61722°N 88.20278°W / 41.61722; -88.20278 (41.617280, -88.202837).^[6]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 12.4 square miles (32 km²), of which, 11.6 square miles (30 km²) of it is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km²) of it (6.67%) is water.

Like its namesake, Plainfield's topography is generally flat. Thousands of years ago, land in greater Plainfield used to be part of the bed of proglacial Lake Wauponsee. However, the lake did not hold up long, and eventually drained into the Illinois River valley.^[7] The lake left behind a very flat landscape. Much of downtown Plainfield has an above sea level elevation of around 600–625 feet (180–191 m), with some areas in the western and northwestern portions of the village's outskirts exceeding 700 feet (210 m). This rise in elevation was created by terminal moraines that were formed during the Wisconsin Episode of the last ice age's last glacial period that has been recorded.

Demographics[link]

As of the census^[8] of 2000, there were 13,038 people, 4,315 households, and 3,521 families residing in the village. According to a 2003 special census, the village has a population of 20,673. The population density was 1,122.8 people per square mile (420/km²). There were 4,609 housing units at an average density of 396.9 per square mile (153.3/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 95.85% White, 0.84% African American, 0.08% Native American, 1.25% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 1.01% from other races, and 0.96% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.87% of the population.

There were 4,315 households out of which 47.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 73.6% were married couples living together, 5.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.4% were non-families. 14.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.01 and the average family size was 3.37.

In the village the population was spread out with 31.9% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 36.2% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 6.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 100.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.7 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the village was $73,217, and the median income for a family was $81,247.^[9] Males had a median income of $59,328 versus $35,861 for females. The per capita income for the village was $28,242. About 1.0% of families and 1.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.2% of those under age 18 and 2.3% of those age 65 or over.

A special census conducted in 2007 pegged the city's population at 37,334.

Education[link]

Plainfield High School Central Campus

Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 serves Plainfield as well as Plainfield Township in unincorporated parts of Will County, Joliet (Caton Farm Road Corridor), and small parts of Bolingbrook and Romeoville.

Notable people[link]

• Ernie Banks, shortstop and first baseman with the Chicago Cubs; lives in Plainfield^{[citation needed]}
• Lisa Chesson, Olympic defenseman with the U.S. women's ice hockey team; was born in Plainfield
• Scott Davis, defensive end with the Los Angeles Raiders; attended Plainfield High School
• Nate Fox, power forward and center with several NBA teams
• John Henebry, U.S. Air Force General; born in Plainfield
• Melissa McCarthy, actress; born in Plainfield
• Alexander Ratiu, Romanian political prisoner; priest at St. Mary Immaculate Church (1975–1982)
• Don Swayze, actor, lives in Plainfeild^{[citation needed]}
• Kyle Williams, wide receiver with the San Francisco 49ers; attended Plainfield Central High

References[link]

External links[link]

Chicago portal

• Plainfield, Illinois official website
• Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois

v t e Municipalities and communities of Will County, Illinois, United States County seat: Joliet Cities Aurora‡ Braidwood Crest Hill Joliet‡ Lockport Naperville‡ Wilmington Villages Beecher Bolingbrook‡ Channahon‡ Coal City‡ Crete Diamond‡ Elwood Frankfort‡ Godley‡ Homer Glen Lemont‡ Manhattan Matteson‡ Minooka‡ Mokena Monee New Lenox Orland Park‡ Park Forest‡ Peotone Plainfield‡ Rockdale Romeoville Sauk Village‡ Shorewood Steger‡ Symerton Tinley Park‡ University Park‡ Woodridge‡ CDPs Crystal Lawns Fairmont Frankfort Square Goodings Grove Ingalls Park Lakewood Shores Preston Heights Willowbrook Townships Channahon Crete Custer DuPage Florence Frankfort Green Garden Homer Jackson Joliet Lockport Manhattan Monee New Lenox Peotone Plainfield Reed Troy Washington Wesley Wheatland Will Wilmington Wilton Unincorporated communities Andres Ballou Custer Park Eagle Lake Goodenow Lorenzo Polk Ritchie Stateville Wilton Wilton Center Ghost town Millsdale Footnotes ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties

v t e Municipalities and communities of Kendall County, Illinois, United States County seat: Yorkville Cities Aurora‡ Joliet‡ Plano Sandwich‡ Yorkville Villages Lisbon Millbrook Millington‡ Minooka‡ Montgomery‡ Newark Oswego Plainfield‡ Plattville Townships Big Grove Bristol Fox Kendall Lisbon Little Rock Na-Au-Say Oswego Seward Unincorporated communities Boulder Hill Bristol Central Fox Helmar Kentland Knob Hill Lisbon Center Little Rock Millhurst Nettlecreek Pavilion Footnotes ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties

v t e  State of Illinois Springfield (capital) Topics Index Buildings and structures Communications Culture Delegations Economy Education Environment Geography Government Health History Music People Portal Society Sports Tourism Transportation Windmills Regions American Bottom Central Illinois Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area Chicago metropolitan area Driftless Area Forgottonia Fox Valley Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky Tri-State Area Metro East Mississippi Alluvial Plain North Shore Northern Illinois Northwestern Illinois Peoria metropolitan area Quad Cities River Bend Rockford metropolitan area Southern Illinois Streatorland Wabash Valley Cities, towns and villages Alton/Granite City/Edwardsville Arlington Heights/Palatine Aurora/Naperville/Oswego/Plainfield Bartlett/Hanover Park/Streamwood Belleville/East St. Louis/Collinsville/O'Fallon Berwyn/Cicero Bloomington/Normal Bolingbrook/Romeoville Buffalo Grove/Wheeling Calumet City Canton Carbondale Carol Stream/Glendale Heights Centralia Champaign/Urbana Charleston/Mattoon Chicago Chicago Heights Crystal Lake/Algonquin Danville Decatur DeKalb/Sycamore Des Plaines/Mount Prospect/Park Ridge Dixon Downers Grove/Woodridge Effingham Elgin/Carpentersville Elmhurst/Lombard/Addison Evanston/Skokie Freeport Galesburg Glenview/Northbrook Harrisburg Jacksonville Joliet Kankakee/Bradley/Bourbonnais Lincoln Macomb Marion/Herrin Moline/East Moline/Rock Island Mount Vernon Mundelein Oak Lawn Oak Park Orland Park/Tinley Park Ottawa/Streator/LaSalle/Peru Peoria/Pekin/East Peoria/Morton Pontiac Quincy Rochelle Rockford/Belvidere/Machesney Park/Loves Park St. Charles Schaumburg/Hoffman Estates/Elk Grove Village Springfield Sterling/Rock Falls Taylorville Waukegan/North Chicago/Gurnee Wheaton Counties Adams Alexander Bond Boone Brown Bureau Calhoun Carroll Cass Champaign Christian Clark Clay Clinton Coles Cook Crawford Cumberland DeKalb DeWitt Douglas DuPage Edgar Edwards Effingham Fayette Ford Franklin Fulton Gallatin Greene Grundy Hamilton Hancock Hardin Henderson Henry Iroquois Jackson Jasper Jefferson Jersey Jo Daviess Johnson Kane Kankakee Kendall Knox LaSalle Lake Lawrence Lee Livingston Logan Macon Macoupin Madison Marion Marshall Mason Massac McDonough McHenry McLean Menard Mercer Monroe Montgomery Morgan Moultrie Ogle Peoria Perry Piatt Pike Pope Pulaski Putnam Randolph Richland Rock Island Saline Sangamon Schuyler Scott Shelby St. Clair Stark Stephenson Tazewell Union Vermilion Wabash Warren Washington Wayne White Whiteside Will Williamson Winnebago Woodford

v t e Chicago metropolitan area Major city Chicago Cities (over 30,000 in 2010) Aurora, Illinois · Berwyn, Illinois · Calumet City, Illinois · Chicago Heights, Illinois · Crystal Lake, Illinois · DeKalb, Illinois · Des Plaines, Illinois · Elgin, Illinois · Elmhurst, Illinois · Evanston, Illinois · Gary, Indiana · Hammond, Indiana · Joliet, Illinois · Kenosha, Wisconsin · Naperville, Illinois · North Chicago, Illinois · Park Ridge, Illinois · Portage, Indiana · St. Charles, Illinois · Valparaiso, Indiana · Waukegan, Illinois · Wheaton, Illinois Towns and villages (over 30,000 in 2010) Addison, Illinois · Algonquin, Illinois · Arlington Heights, Illinois · Bartlett, Illinois · Bolingbrook, Illinois · Buffalo Grove, Illinois · Carol Stream, Illinois · Carpentersville, Illinois · Cicero, Illinois · Downers Grove, Illinois · Elk Grove Village, Illinois · Glendale Heights, Illinois · Glenview, Illinois · Gurnee, Illinois · Hanover Park, Illinois · Hoffman Estates, Illinois · Lombard, Illinois · Merrillville, Indiana · Mount Prospect, Illinois · Mundelein, Illinois · Northbrook, Illinois · Oak Lawn, Illinois · Oak Park, Illinois · Orland Park, Illinois · Oswego, Illinois · Palatine, Illinois · Plainfield, Illinois · Romeoville, Illinois · Schaumburg, Illinois · Skokie, Illinois · Streamwood, Illinois · Tinley Park, Illinois · Wheeling, Illinois · Woodridge, Illinois Counties Cook County, Illinois · DeKalb County, Illinois · DuPage County, Illinois · Grundy County, Illinois · Jasper County, Indiana · Kane County, Illinois · Kendall County, Illinois · Kenosha County, Wisconsin · Lake County, Illinois · Lake County, Indiana · McHenry County, Illinois · Newton County, Indiana · Porter County, Indiana · Will County, Illinois Regions Great Lakes · Northern Illinois · Northern Indiana Sub-regions Chicago Southland · Eastern Ridges and Lowlands · Fox Valley (Illinois) · Golden Corridor · Illinois Technology and Research Corridor · North Shore (Chicago) · Northwest Indiana Illinois · United States

State of Illinois
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): Land of Lincoln; The Prairie State
Motto(s): State sovereignty, national union
Official language(s)	English[1]
Spoken language(s)	English (80.8%) Spanish (10.9%) Other (5.1%)[2]
Demonym	Illinoisan
Capital	Springfield
Largest city	Chicago
Largest metro area	Chicago metropolitan area
Area	Ranked 25th in the U.S.
- Total	57,914 sq mi (149,998 km2)
- Width	210 miles (340 km)
- Length	395 miles (629 km)
- % water	4.0/Negligible
- Latitude	36° 58′ N to 42° 30′ N
- Longitude	87° 30′ W to 91° 31′ W
Population	Ranked 5th in the U.S.
- Total	12,869,257 (2011 est)[3]
- Density	232/sq mi  (89.4/km2) Ranked 12th in the U.S.
- Median household income	$54,124[4] (17)
Elevation
- Highest point	Charles Mound[5][6][7] 1,235 ft (376.4 m)
- Mean	600 ft  (180 m)
- Lowest point	Confluence of Mississippi River and Ohio River[6][7] 280 ft (85 m)
Before statehood	Illinois Territory
Admission to Union	December 3, 1818 (21st)
Governor	Pat Quinn (D)
Lieutenant Governor	Sheila Simon (D)
Legislature	General Assembly
- Upper house	Senate
- Lower house	House of Representatives
U.S. Senators	Dick Durbin (D) Mark Kirk (R)
U.S. House delegation	11 Republicans, 8 Democrats (list)
Time zone	Central: UTC -6/-5
Abbreviations	IL, Ill., US-IL
Website	www.illinois.gov

Illinois State symbols
The Flag of Illinois.
The Seal of Illinois.
Animate insignia
Amphibian	Eastern Tiger Salamander
Bird(s)	Northern Cardinal
Butterfly	Monarch Butterfly
Fish	Bluegill
Flower(s)	Violet
Grass	Big bluestem
Mammal(s)	White-tailed deer
Reptile	Painted turtle
Tree	White oak
Inanimate insignia
Dance	Square dance
Food	Gold Rush Apple · Popcorn
Fossil	Tully Monster
Mineral	Fluorite
Poem	The Death Poem
Slogan(s)	"Land of Lincoln"
Soil	Drummer silty clay loam
Song(s)	"Illinois"
Route marker(s)
State Quarter
Released in 2003
Lists of United States state insignia

Illinois (ⁱ/ˌɪlɨˈnɔɪ/ IL-i-NOY) is the 25th most extensive and the 5th most populous of the 50 United States, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country.^[8] With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a broad economic base. Illinois is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean; as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms^[8] and politics.

Although the state's largest population centers today are in northern Illinois, originally the state's population grew from south to north, with settlers arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan.^[9] Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration established a large community of African Americans in Chicago that created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.^[10][11]

Three U.S. Presidents have been elected while living in Illinois—Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Barack Obama. Additionally, President Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only US President actually born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan, Land of Lincoln, which has been displayed on its license plates since 1954.^[12][13]

Name[link]

"Illinois" is the modern spelling for the early French missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois people, a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records.^[14]

The name "Illinois" has traditionally been said to mean "man" or "men" in the Miami-Illinois language, with the original iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois.^[15][16] However, this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language itself, in which the word for 'man' is ireniwa and plural 'men' is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also been said to mean "tribe of superior men",^[17] though this is nothing more than a false etymology. In fact the name "Illinois" derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa "he speaks the regular way". This was then taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe· (pluralized as ilinwe·k). These forms were then borrowed into French, where the /we/ ending acquired the spelling -ois. The current form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s. The Illinois' name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms.^[18][19][20]

History[link]

Pre-European[link]

Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in Union County, Illinois

Native Americans lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans. The Koster Site has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation. Cahokia, the largest regional chiefdom and urban center of the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. They built more than 100 platform and burial mounds, a 50 acres (20 ha) plaza^[21] and a woodhenge in a planned design expressing the culture's cosmology. Monks Mound, the center of the site, is the largest precolumbian structure north of the Valley of Mexico and is 100 feet (30 m) high, 951 feet (290 m) long, 836 feet (255 m) wide and covers 13.8 acres (5.6 ha).^[22] It also contains about 814,000 cubic yards (622,000 m³) of earth.^[23] It was topped by a structure thought to have measured about 105 feet (32 m) in length and 48 feet (15 m) in width, covered an area 5,000 square feet (460 m²) and could have been as much as 50 feet (15 m) high, making its peak 150 feet (46 m) above the level of the plaza. The civilization vanished in the 15th century for unknown reasons, but historians and archeologists have speculated that the people depleted the area of resources. Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare. According to Suzanne Austin Alchon, "At one site in the central Illinois River valley, one-third of all adults died as a result of violent injuries."^[24]

The next major power in the region was the Illinois Confederation or Illini, a political alliance among several tribes. The Illinois people numbered about 25,000 in 1700, but systematic attacks and warfare by the Iroquois reduced their numbers by 90 percent.^[25] Gradually, members of the Potawatomi, Miami, Sauk, and other tribes came in from the east and north.^[26] In the American Revolution, the Illinois and Potawatomi supported the American colonists' cause.

European exploration[link]

Illinois in 1718, approximate modern state area highlighted, from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L'Isle.^[27]

French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois River in 1673. In 1680, other French explorers constructed a fort at the site of present day Peoria, and in 1682, a fort atop Starved Rock in today's Starved Rock State Park. As a result of this French exploration, Illinois was part of the French empire until 1763, when it passed to the British with their conquest of New France. The small French settlements continued; a few British soldiers were posted in Illinois, but there were no British or American settlers. In 1778, George Rogers Clark claimed the Illinois Country for Virginia. The area was ceded by Virginia to the new United States in 1783 and became part of the Northwest Territory.^[28]

19th century[link]

The Illinois-Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois. The Illinois Territory was created on February 3, 1809, with its capital at Kaskaskia.

During the discussions leading up to Illinois' admission to the Union, the proposed northern boundary of the state was moved twice.^[29] The original provisions of the Northwest Ordinance had specified a boundary that would have been tangent to the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Such a boundary would have actually left Illinois with no shoreline on Lake Michigan at all. However, as Indiana had successfully been granted a 10-mile northern extension of its boundary to provide it with a usable lakefront, the original bill for Illinois statehood, submitted to Congress on January 23, 1818, stipulated a northern border at the same latitude as Indiana's which is defined as 10 miles (16 km) north of the southernmost extremity of Lake Michigan. But the Illinois delegate, Nathaniel Pope, wanted more. Pope lobbied to have the boundary moved further north, and the final bill passed by Congress did just that; it included an amendment to shift the border to 42° 30' north, which is approximately 51 miles (82 km) north of the Indiana northern border. This shift added 8,500 square miles (22,000 km²) to the state, including the lead mining region near Galena. More importantly, it added nearly 50 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and the Chicago River. Pope and others envisioned a canal which would connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers, and thus, connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.

In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. The capital remained at Kaskaskia, headquartered in a small building rented by the state. In 1819, Vandalia became the capital, and over the next 18 years, three separate buildings were built to serve successively as the capitol building. In 1837, the state legislators representing Sangamon County, under the leadership of state representative Abraham Lincoln, succeeded in having the capital moved to Springfield,^[30] where a fifth capitol building was constructed. A sixth capitol building was erected in 1867, which continues to serve as the Illinois capitol today.

Though ostensibly a "free state", Illinois had slavery. The French owned black slaves as late as the 1820s. Slavery was nominally banned by the Northwest Ordinance, but that was not enforced. When Illinois became a sovereign state in 1818, the Ordinance no longer applied, and there were about 900 slaves there. As the southern part of the state, known as "Egypt"or "Little Egypt",^[31][32] was largely settled by migrants from the South, the section was hostile to free blacks and allowed settlers to bring slaves with them for labor. Most citizens were opposed to allowing blacks as permanent residents, and efforts to make slavery official failed in 1822. Nevertheless, some slaves were brought in seasonally or as house servants.^[33] The Illinois Constitution of 1848 was written with a provision for exclusionary laws to be passed. In 1853, John A. Logan helped pass a law to prohibit all African Americans, including freedmen, from settling in the state.^[34]

In 1832, the Black Hawk War was fought in Illinois and current day Wisconsin between the United States and the Sauk, Fox (Meskwaki) and Kickapoo Indian tribes. The Indians withdrew to Iowa; when they attempted to return, they were defeated by U.S. militia and forced back to Iowa.^{[citation needed]}

The winter of 1830–1831 is called the "Winter of the Deep Snow"; a sudden, deep snowfall blanketed the state, making travel impossible for the rest of the winter, and many travelers perished. Several severe winters followed, including the "Winter of the Sudden Freeze". On December 20, 1836, a fast-moving cold front passed through, freezing puddles in minutes and killing many travelers who could not reach shelter. The adverse weather resulted in crop failures in the northern part of the state. The southern part of the state shipped food north and this may have contributed to its name: "Little Egypt", after the Biblical story of Joseph in Egypt supplying grain to his brothers.^[35]

By 1839, the Mormons had founded a utopian city called Nauvoo. Located in Hancock County, along the Mississippi River, Nauvoo flourished and soon rivaled Chicago for the position of the state's largest city. But in 1844, the Mormon leader Joseph Smith was murdered in the Carthage Jail, about 30 miles away from Nauvoo. Soon afterward, after close to six years of rapid development, Nauvoo saw a rapid decline after the Mormons' new leadership led them out of Illinois in a mass exodus to present-day Utah.

Chicago gained prominence as a Great Lakes port and then as an Illinois and Michigan Canal port after 1848, and as a rail hub soon afterward. By 1857, Chicago was Illinois' largest city.^[28] With the tremendous growth of mines and factories in the state in the 19th century, Illinois played an important role in the formation of labor unions in the United States. The Pullman Strike and Haymarket Riot in particular greatly influenced the development of the American labor movement. From Sunday, October 8, 1871, until Tuesday, October 10, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire burned in downtown Chicago, destroying 4 square miles (10 km²).^[36]

In 1847, after lobbying by Dorothea L. Dix, Illinois became one of the first states to establish a system of state-supported treatment of mental illness and disabilities, replacing local almshouses.

Civil War[link]

During the American Civil War, over 250,000 Illinois men served in the Union Army, a figure surpassed by only New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Beginning with President Abraham Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Illinois mustered 150 infantry regiments, which were numbered from the 7th to the 156th regiments. Seventeen cavalry regiments were also gathered, as well as two light artillery regiments.^[37] The town of Cairo at the southern tip of the state served as a strategically important supply base and training center for the Union army. For several months, both General Grant and Admiral Foote had headquarters in Cairo.

20th century[link]

At the turn of the 20th century, Illinois had a population of nearly 5 million. Whites were 98% of the state's population.^[38] Bolstered by continued immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and by the African American Great Migration, Illinois grew and emerged as one of the most important states in the union. By the end of the century, the population had reached 12.4 million.

The Century of Progress World's Fair was held at Chicago in 1933. Oil strikes in Marion County and Crawford County lead to a boom in 1937, and, by 1939, Illinois ranked fourth in U.S. oil production. 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 (which still exists today as a museum, with a working McDonald's across the street).

No state has had a more prominent role than Illinois in the emergence of the nuclear age. As part of the Manhattan Project, the first sustained nuclear chain reaction took place at the University of Chicago in 1942. In 1957, Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, activated the first experimental nuclear power generating system in the United States. By 1960, the first privately financed nuclear plant in United States, Dresden 1, was dedicated near Morris. In 1967, Fermilab, a national nuclear research facility near Batavia, opened a particle accelerator, which was the world's largest for over 40 years. And, with eleven plants currently operating, Illinois leads all states in the amount of electricity generated from nuclear power.^[39][40]

In 1961, Illinois became the first state in the nation to adopt the recommendation of the American Law Institute and pass a comprehensive criminal code revision that repealed the law against sodomy. The code also abrogated common law crimes and established an age of consent of 18.^[41] The state's fourth constitution was adopted in 1970, replacing the 1870 document.

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.^[28]

Geography[link]

Illinois, showing major cities and roads

Illinois is located in the Midwest Region of the United States and is one of the nine states and Canadian Province of Ontario in the bi-national Great Lakes region of North America.

Boundaries[link]

Illinois' eastern border with Indiana consists of a north-south line at 87° 31′ 30″ west longitude, from Lake Michigan to the Wabash River above Post Vincennes. The Wabash River continues as the eastern/southeastern border with Indiana until the Wabash enters the Ohio River. This marks the beginning of Illinois' southern border with Kentucky, which runs along the northern shoreline of the Ohio River.^[42] Its western border with Missouri and Iowa is the Mississippi River. Its northern border with Wisconsin is fixed at 42° 30' north latitude. The northeastern border of Illinois actually lies within Lake Michigan, within which Illinois shares a water boundary with the state of Michigan.^[26]

Topography[link]

Though Illinois lies entirely in the Interior Plains, it does have some minor variation in its elevation. In extreme northwestern Illinois, the Driftless Area, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, occupies a small part of the state. Charles Mound, located in this region, has the state's highest elevation above sea level at 1,235 feet (376 m) 1,235 feet (376 m). The floodplain on the Mississippi River from Alton to the Kaskaskia River is known as the American Bottom.

Divisions[link]

Illinois has three major geographical divisions. Northern Illinois is dominated by the Chicago metropolitan area; the city of Chicago, its suburbs, and the adjoining exurban area into which the metropolis is expanding. As defined by the federal government, the Chicago metro area includes several counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and has a population of 9.8 million people. Chicago itself is a cosmopolitan city, densely populated, industrialized, the transportation hub of the nation, and settled by a wide variety of ethnic groups. The city of Rockford, Illinois' third largest city and center of the state's fourth largest metropolitan area, sits along Interstates 39 and 90 some 75 miles (121 km) northwest of Chicago. The Quad Cities region, located along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois, had a population of 379,066 in 2009.

Southward and westward, the second major division is Central Illinois, an area of mostly prairie. Known as the Heart of Illinois, it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. The western section (west of the Illinois River) was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the conspicuous western bulge of the state. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, as well as educational institutions and manufacturing centers, figure prominently. Cities include Peoria, the third largest metropolitan area in Illinois at 370,000; Springfield, the state capital; Quincy; Decatur; Bloomington-Normal; and Champaign-Urbana.^[26]

The third division is Southern Illinois, comprising the area south of U.S. Route 50, including Little Egypt, near the juncture of the Mississippi River and Ohio River. Southern Illinois is the site of the ancient city of Cahokia, as well as the site of the first state capital at Kaskaskia, which today is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River.^[26][43] This region can be distinguished from the other two by its warmer climate, different variety of crops (including some cotton farming in the past), more rugged topography (due to the area remaining unglaciated during the Illinoian Stage, unlike most of the rest of the state), as well as small-scale oil deposits and coal mining. The Illinois suburbs of St. Louis comprise the second most populous metropolitan area in Illinois with over 700,000 inhabitants, and are known collectively as the Metro-East. The other significant concentration of population in Southern Illinois is the Carbondale-Marion-Herrin, Illinois Combined Statistical Area centered on Carbondale and Marion, a two-county area that is home to 123,272 residents.^[26] A portion of southeastern Illinois is part of the extended Evansville, Indiana Metro Area, locally referred to as the Tri-State with Indiana and Kentucky. Seven Illinois counties are in the area.

In addition to these three, largely latitudinally defined divisions, all of the region outside of the Chicago Metropolitan area is often called "downstate" Illinois. This term is flexible, but is generally meant to mean everything outside the Chicago-area. Thus, some cities in Northern Illinois, such as DeKalb, which is west of Chicago, and Rockford—which is actually north of Chicago—are considered to be "downstate".

Climate[link]

Because of its nearly 400-mile distance between its northernmost and southernmost extremes, as well as its mid-continental situation, Illinois has a widely varying climate. Most of Illinois has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfa), with hot, humid summers and cold winters. The southernmost part of the state, from about Carbondale southward, borders on a humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa), with more moderate winters. Average yearly precipitation for Illinois varies from just over 48 inches (1,219 mm) at the southern tip to around 35 inches (889 mm) in the northern portion of the state. Normal annual snowfall exceeds 38 inches (965 mm) in the Chicago area, while the southern portion of the state normally receives less than 14 inches (356 mm).^[44] The all time high temperature was 117 °F (47 °C), recorded on July 14, 1954, at East St. Louis, while the all time low temperature was −36 °F (−38 °C), recorded on January 5, 1999, at Congerville.^[45]

Illinois averages around 51 days of thunderstorm activity a year, which ranks somewhat above average in the number of thunderstorm days for the United States. Illinois is vulnerable to tornadoes with an average of 35 occurring annually, which puts much of the state at around five tornadoes per 10,000 square miles (30,000 km²) annually.^[46] While tornadoes are no more powerful in Illinois than other states, the nation's deadliest tornadoes on record have occurred largely in Illinois because it is the most populous state in Tornado Alley. The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 killed 695 people in three states; 613 of the victims died in Illinois.^[47] Modern developments in storm tracking have caused death tolls from tornadoes to dramatically decline since the 1960s, with no major losses of life in the state since the 1967 tornado storm in northern Illinois.

Demographics[link]