Mr. Wood advises us, "The proposed trip will be an easy one, for no other State has more miles of concrete roads," (p. 528). We begin at the "Brookport (Illinois) - Paducah (Kentucky) bridge. Its piers are built high enough out of the water to allow river boats to pass comfortably beneath it" (photo caption, p. 524).
Our first city is Cairo, where the Ohio River meets the mighty Mississippi River. The highway curves in through the Ozark Mountains through the town of Anna to the Fern Cliff Park. "At Tunnel Hill the Illinois Central (railroad) has bored a 7,000-foot tunnel as part of the 169 mile cut-off between Edgewood, Illinois, and Fulton, Kentucky" (p. 529).
Further north is the city of Benton, "the center of vast (coal) mines, 5 of which in different years have held world records for production . . . The deepest bituminous mine shaft in the country, greater than 1,100 feet, is near Assumption, Illinois" (p. 533). This is Surprise Number One: I had no idea of the extensive mining operations there.
Did you know: Illinois was a major oil producer in 1931, with "6,000,000 barrels a year, but it is as a refining and distribution center that Illinois is most important to the oil industry" (p. 533). This is surprise Number Two: large oil wells are supposed to be in Texas!
Our highway moves on through Vandalia, the old State Capitol, then onward through corn fields. Illinois "makes the machines for modern agriculture, manufactures food products, and it has become the food distribution center for the United States, if not for the world" (p. 536). "Some 9,000,000 acres of the black prairie soil of Illinois are planted in corn . . .Most. . . is fed to livestock on the farms" (photo caption, p. 549).
Many acres of land are under glass in greenhouses. Illinois was a major flower grower in 1931, as well as the top producer of cucumbers.
Mr. Wood reaches the Wisconsin border on the highway, then drifts south on a boat on the Mississippi River, the western border of Illinois. He passes Galena, the home of lead mines, started when silver or gold was the hoped-for mineral.
FYI: A blacksmith named John Deere "came to the Indian city of Saukenuk, now Rock Island, in 1830. Seven years later he finished the first steel plow . . .big works produce much more than plows nowadays, but the Deere family name survives" (p. 544). This Christmas I'm giving a young grandson a green toy John Deere tractor. My cousin, Mary Jean's husband, Danny, is very proud of his John Deere tractor riding lawnmower. Several years ago, my cousins and I were antiquing in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.A., and found a large old green John Deere tractor cookie jar for Danny. Mary Jean baked him cookies and gave it to him for Valentine's Day. John Deere's fame lives on!
The State Capitol is Springfield, "a city rich in memories and associations of Abraham Lincoln," one of our American presidents, (photo caption, p. 544). Springfield "is the national shrine of (President) Lincoln. One of the largest collections of Lincolniana is in the cramped nave of his tomb, in beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery. . .the old Lincoln home is also here" (p. 561-2).
"In the northeast corner of Illinois is Chicago - vibrant, intense giant among great cities, dynamic with the spirit of growing youth. . . In less than a quarter of a century it has grown from a frontier stockade in a swamp to fourth place among world cities" (p. 562). In 1931, the population of Chicago was 3,350,000. 2013 estimate is 2.715 million. Why the decrease? Probably this is due to the many incorporated small cities not counted in Chicago.
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| View of Chicago skyline from the interstate, May, 2010. On our way to my brother, Steve's funeral in Wisconsin, we thought we might go straight through Chicago during a non-rush hour time and avoid heavy traffic. Wrong!! We had quite a lengthy view of Chicago. On the way home, we bypassed the mega-city entirely and took the toll road through the countryside. I have memories of hundreds of miles of cornfields and wind farms. |
On the shores of Lake Michigan near Chicago is the Great Lakes Training station for the U.S. Navy. Both of my sons, #1, Billy, and #2, John, trained there.
Chicago was in 1931 the hub for the giant distribution center for food and manufactured goods. "It is a fresh-produce terminal; 30,000 (rail) cars of fruit from California alone being distributed there. Its pantry has on ice half a million tons of meat, enough butter and eggs to supply the nation for 6 weeks" (p. 593). The greatest marvel is its rapid growth, for "136 years ago General Anthony Wayne bought the entire area from the Indians for one cent an acre - $363,000, the price of the State" (p. 594).
Mr. Wood concluded, "As the people of Illinois have prospered they have made it beautiful - a pleasing place to live. Where the nations' highways cross is the hospitable heart of the land" (p. 594).
The extremely long but never boring article has engendered in me a desire to visit the nearby state of Illinois, in which lived my grandmother on my dad's side, Hetty, in Peoria. I might just seek it out next summer. . .
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