Illinois

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

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

The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741 to the mission at Kaskaskia. It was later called the "Liberty Bell of the West", after it was rung to celebrate U.S. victory in the Revolution

In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. The southern portion of Illinois Territory was admitted as the state of Illinois, and the rest was joined to Michigan Territory.

[[Old State Capitol State Historic Site|
Old State Capitol]]: Abraham Lincoln and other area legislators were instrumental in moving the state capitol to centrally located Springfield in 1839.

Embarkation of Union troops from Cairo on January 10, 1862

Charles Mound, the highest natural point in Illinois at 1,235 feet above sea level, is located in the Driftless Area in the northwestern part of the state.

At 279 feet above sea level, the lowest elevation point in the state is located near Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Density map displaying the population of Illinois

The Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago at the heart of Chicago's financial center

Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Ogle County

Average annual wind power distribution for Illinois, 50 m height above ground (2009)

The Illinois State Capitol in Springfield

Vandalia State House State Historic Site in Vandalia

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago

Magnolia Manor is a Victorian period historic house museum in Cairo.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield

A Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union

Standard license plate introduced in 2017

State in the Midwestern United States.

- Illinois

500 related topics

Metro East

Region in southern Illinois that contains eastern and northern suburbs and exurbs of St. Louis, Missouri, United States.

The Metro East is the second largest urban area in Illinois after the Chicago metropolitan area and, as of the 2000 census, the population of the Metro East statistical area was 599,845 residents, a figure that had risen to above 700,000 in 2010.

Peoria metropolitan area, Illinois

Map of Illinois highlighting the Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Components of the Peoria–Canton Combined Statistical Area.

The Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of six counties in Central Illinois, anchored by the city of Peoria.

O'Hare International Airport

"O'Hare" and "ORD" redirect here.

Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat on display in O'Hare's Terminal 2, restored in the markings of "Butch" O'Hare's plane

Reconstructed Brachiosaurus skeleton, formerly in the Field Museum, exhibited at the airport since 1999

Control tower and terminals 3 & 2 seen from ATS (Airport Transit System)

Chicago O'Hare International Airport, typically referred to as O'Hare Airport, Chicago O'Hare, or simply O'Hare, is a major international airport located on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Illinois, 17 mi northwest of the Loop business district.

Wabash River

A 503 mi river that drains most of the state of Indiana in the United States.

A scene along the Wabash River, sketched in 1778 by Lt Governor Henry Hamilton en route to recapture Vincennes, Indiana during the American Revolutionary War

The former course if the Wabash River, running by the former site of the original Fort Recovery. The reproduction can be seen in the background, but it is not the original fort.

Sunset Point at Delphi, where Deer Creek joins the Wabash

A small island and water fowl wildlife refuge in the Wabash near Mount Carmel, Illinois

Wabash River historical marker in Mercer County just south of Fort Recovery.

Wabash River in Limberlost Recreation Area, south of Berne, Indiana.

The Wabash River at Lafayette, Indiana, showing the Myers Pedestrian Bridge, and the Amtrak station. The river flows from left to right (north to south). This stretch is notable for large, sandy deposits.

Natural-colour satellite image of the Wabash-Ohio confluence. Hovey Lake is to the left between the bend in the Ohio River.

Lincoln Memorial Bridge over the Wabash River near the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park

It flows from the headwaters in Ohio, near the Indiana border, then southwest across northern Indiana turning south near the Illinois border, where the southern portion forms the Indiana-Illinois border before flowing into the Ohio River.

Ohio River

981 mi long river in the United States.

Steamboat Morning Star, a Louisville and Evansville mail packet, in 1858.

Built between 1847 and 1849, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge was the first bridge across the river and a crucial part of the National Road.

Cave-in-rock, view on the Ohio (circa 1832, Cave-In-Rock, Illinois): aquatint by Karl Bodmer from the book Maximilian, Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832–1834

Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia which collapsed into the Ohio River on December 15, 1967, killing 46 people.

A barge heads east on the Ohio River in Louisville, Kentucky.

The confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers is at Cairo, Illinois.

The Ohio River as seen from Fredonia, Indiana.

Natural-color satellite image of the Wabash-Ohio confluence.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana, is one of many towns that use the Ohio as a shipping avenue.

The Allegheny River, left, and Monongahela River join to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the largest metropolitan area on the river.

Louisville, Kentucky, The deepest point of the Ohio River is a scour hole just below Cannelton locks and dam (river mile 720.7).

A barge hauls coal in the Louisville and Portland Canal, the only artificial portion of the Ohio River.

Cincinnati skyline showing the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge to Covington, Kentucky.

Carl Perkins Bridge in Portsmouth, Ohio with Ohio River and Scioto River tributary on right.

The Ohio River seen at Sciotoville, from the "Geography of Ohio," 1923

It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from far-western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illinois.

Cahokia

Site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed c. undefined 1050–1350 CE ) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri.

A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures. Cahokia is located near the center of this map in the upper part of the Middle Mississippi area.

Artist's recreation of central Cahokia. Cahokia's east-west baseline transects the Woodhenge, Monk's Mound, and several other large mounds.

Mississippian period showing the multiple layers of mound construction, mound structures such as temples or mortuaries, ramps with log stairs, and prior structures under later layers, multiple terraces, and intrusive burials

An 1882 illustration of Monks Mound showing it with fanciful proportions

Incised sandstone tablet of a Birdman found in 1971 during excavations into the east side of Monks Mound

Mississippian culture repoussé copper plates

View of the reconstructed Woodhenge III and its alignment with the equinox pole and Monks Mound 0.5 mi away

A Mississippian-era priest, in the 13th century, Cahokia metropolis, holding a ceremonial flint mace and severed sacrificial head

Tamarois et Caouquias on a French map of Illinois in 1718, south of the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers (approximate modern state area highlighted) from {{lang|fr|Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi}} by Guillaume de L'Isle

The Rattlesnake Causeway leading from Monks Mound to Mound 66 is the city's ceremonial north-south axis.

The "Chunkey Player" statuette, made of Missouri flint clay, depicts the ancient Native American game of chunkey. The statuette is believed to have been originally crafted at or near Cahokia Mounds; it was excavated at a Mississippian site in Muskogee County, Oklahoma, revealing the reach of the trade network of this culture.

Clay statuette excavated at Cahokia site

This historic park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville.

Kentucky

Abraham Lincoln Birthplace near Hodgenville

Kentucky's regions (click on image for color-coding information)

Lake Cumberland is the largest artificial American lake east of the Mississippi River by volume.

Once an industrial wasteland, Louisville's reclaimed waterfront now features thousands of trees and miles of walking trails.

Red River Gorge is one of Kentucky's most visited places.

Forest at Otter Creek Outdoor Recreation Area, Meade County, Kentucky

Lexington Theological Seminary (then College of the Bible), 1904

The best selling car in the United States, the Toyota Camry, is manufactured in Georgetown, Kentucky.

The best selling truck in the United States, the Ford F-Series, is manufactured in Louisville, Kentucky.

Spring running of Keeneland in Lexington, KY

William T. Young Library at the University of Kentucky, Kentucky's flagship university.

The J.B. Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville, Kentucky's urban research university.

At 484 mi long, Kentucky Route 80 is the longest route in Kentucky, pictured here west of Somerset.

High Bridge over the Kentucky River was the tallest rail bridge in the world when it was completed in 1877.

A barge hauling coal in the Louisville and Portland Canal, the only manmade section of the Ohio River

The Kentucky State Capitol building in Frankfort

A map showing Kentucky's six congressional districts

Treemap of the popular vote by county, 2016 presidential election

Old Louisville is the largest Victorian Historic neighborhood in the United States.

The U.S. 23 Country Music Highway Museum in Paintsville provides background on the country music artists from Eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky's Churchill Downs hosts the Kentucky Derby.

Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South, bordered by Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to the east; Tennessee to the south; and Missouri to the west.

Illinois Country

Vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s in what is now the Midwestern United States.

1681 map of the New World: New France and the Great Lakes in the north, with a dark line as the Mississippi River to the west and the mouth of the river (and future New Orleans) then terra incognita. The area to the southwest of the Great Lakes is labeled, Pays des Illinois.

Map of western New France, including the Illinois Country, by Vincenzo Coronelli, 1688

French Map of North America 1700 (Covens and Mortier ed. 1708) -- "PAYS DES ILINOIS", near center

Reconstructed curtain and gatehouse of Fort de Chartres

Thomas Hutchins map of settlements in the Illinois Country in 1778

French Church of the Holy Family in Cahokia

Map of British America's Province of Quebec and the trans-Mississippi River, Illinois Country (center-left) under the Quebec Act of 1774.

While these names generally referred to the entire Upper Mississippi River watershed, French colonial settlement was concentrated along the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in what is now the U.S. states of Illinois and Missouri, with outposts in Indiana.

Springfield, Illinois

Present Capitol building, built c. 1868–1888

a Courtyard Marriott Location damaged by the 2006 Springfield tornadoes

Satellite image of Springfield taken from ESA Sentinel-2

Abraham Lincoln resided in Springfield for 24 years

Outline of the Township area and the City of Springfield in Sangamon County

Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County.

Mississippi River

Second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system.

The beginning of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca (2004)

Former head of navigation, St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, viewed from Wyalusing State Park in Wisconsin

The Upper Mississippi River at its confluence with the Missouri River north of St. Louis

The confluence of the Mississippi (left) and Ohio (right) rivers at Cairo, Illinois, the demarcation between the Middle and the Lower Mississippi River

Lower Mississippi River near New Orleans

Sequence of NASA MODIS images showing the outflow of fresh water from the Mississippi (arrows) into the Gulf of Mexico (2004)

View along the former riverbed at the Tennessee/Arkansas state line near Reverie, Tennessee (2007)

In Minnesota, the Mississippi River runs through the Twin Cities (2007)

Community of boathouses on the Mississippi River in Winona, MN (2006)

The Mississippi River at the Chain of Rocks just north of St. Louis (2005)

A low-water dam deepens the pool above the Chain of Rocks Lock near St. Louis (2006)

The Stone Arch Bridge, the Third Avenue Bridge and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis (2004)

The Chain of Rocks Bridge at St. Louis, Missouri

The Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee (2009)

Towboat and barges at Memphis, Tennessee

Ships on the lower part of the Mississippi

Oil tanker on the Lower Mississippi near the Port of New Orleans

Lock and Dam No. 11, north of Dubuque, Iowa (2007)

Lock and Dam No. 2, near Hastings, Minnesota (2007)

Lock and Dam No. 15, is the largest roller dam in the world Davenport, Iowa; Rock Island, Illinois. (1990)

Formation of the Atchafalaya River and construction of the Old River Control Structure.

Project design flood flow capacity for the Mississippi river in thousands of cubic feet per second.

Soldiers of the Missouri Army National Guard sandbag the River in Clarksville, Missouri, June 2008, following flooding.

Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto A.D. 1541 by William Henry Powell depicts Hernando de Soto and Spanish Conquistadores seeing the Mississippi River for the first time.

Map of the French settlements (blue) in North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War (1754 to 1763).

Ca. 1681 map of Marquette and Jolliet's 1673 expedition.

Route of the Marquette-Jolliete Expedition of 1673

Shifting sand bars made early navigation difficult.

Mississippi River from Eunice, Arkansas, a settlement destroyed by gunboats during the Civil War.

The Old River Control Structure complex. View is to the east-southeast, looking downriver on the Mississippi, with the three dams across channels of the Atchafalaya River to the right of the Mississippi. Concordia Parish, Louisiana is in the foreground, on the right, and Wilkinson County, Mississippi, is in the background, across the Mississippi on the left.

Great River Road in Wisconsin near Lake Pepin (2005)

The American paddlefish is an ancient relict from the Mississippi

The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.