It's time to party like it's 1818 again as we celebrate the Statehood Day of Illinois, now at 202 years. For the occasion of the Illinois bicentennial, which was two years ago, I created 2 lists of 200 things about Illinois that I included in various blog posts. You can access links to them in this post from 1 year ago. It was a great way to consider all the amazing things about Illinois, and has inspired me to keep musing about this state.
In honor of Illinois's birthday today, here's a list of 21 more things about the 21st state, especially as I remember my recent travels in Illinois as a starting point.
While St. Louis is a major city in Missouri, it has multiple suburbs on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, referred to as the Metro East area.
I stayed at a hotel in Granite City (#1) this past summer after driving Historic US Route 66 through Illinois. Just west of there is Choteau Island (#2), which was formed by the creation of Chain of Rocks Canal (#3), which helped boats navigate a treacherous area of the Mississippi River that is littered with rocks from thousands of years ago.
Just to the north of Granite City in Hartford is the Lewis and Clark Confluence Tower (#4).
It is close to the Lewis and Clark State Memorial Park (#5), preserving the site where the Lewis and Clark Expedition started and finished.
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (#6) has a lovely garden area (#7).
While driving there from Hartford, I impulsively stopped at a farm stand, where I bought some Calhoun peaches (#8), a type of peach grown particularly in southern Illinois. That shopping stop there was my first time ever encountering this type of peach.
Collinsville (#9) is known for its giant Brooks Catsup (Ketchup) Bottle water tower (#10).
In the northern reaches of the Metro East Area is Alton, which, among other claims to fame, was the home of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy (#11), where he moved after pro-slavery mobs destroyed his printing press in Missouri. In Alton, he published the abolitionist newspaper The Alton Observer (#12). The Elijah Lovejoy Monument (#13) in Alton continues to testify to his courage in standing for the dignity of all people.
Further north is Pere Marquette State Park (#14), at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.
Over on the eastern outskirts of the Metro East area near Shiloh (#15) is Scott Air Force Base (#16), a major military installation.
Belleville has the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows (#17), where I had a very quiet, prayerful visit this past summer.
St. Clair County (#18) is one of the counties in the Metro East Area, and is the oldest county in Illinois. It was named for Arthur St. Clair (#19), the first governor of the vast Northwest Territory.
Cahokia (#20) was started in 1697 as a French settlement.
In the midst of continuing to celebrate the spirit of the bicentennial and learn more about Illinois, I encountered a series of podcasts from Illinois Humanities (#21) that were recorded for that occasion.
They are archived at this link, and well worth the time to listen to them, as a way of learning more about the great state of Illinois, my home sweet home.
No comments:
Post a Comment