state of Illinois.
State of Illinois Flag of Illinois State seal of Illinois Map of the United States with Illinois highlighted Illinois (Listeni/ l n / il-i-noy) is a state in the Eastern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818.
It is the 6th most crowded state and 25th biggest state in terms of territory area, and is noted as a microcosm of the entire country. The word "Illinois" comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word.
With Chicago in the northeast, small industrialized cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and oil in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base and is a primary transportation hub.
The Port of Chicago joins 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 Waterway.
Although today the state's biggest population center is around Chicago in the northern part of the state, the state's European populace interval first in the west, with French Canadian colonists who settled along the Mississippi River in the 17th and 18th century, and gave the region the name, "Pays des Illinois" or Illinois Country a region that was known as part of New France.
After the American Revolutionary War established the United States, American pioneer began arriving crossing the Appalachians barrier range in the 1810s via the gaps of the Allegheny to boat building centers in Pittsburgh, from Cumberland, Maryland via the Cumberland Narrows pass to outfit in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, from North Carolina and Virginia via the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky and Tennessee, all on the Ohio River.
With the War of 1812 Illinois expansion slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier.
After the war's end, the federal government re-established forts such as Fort Dearborn (in 1816 now the site is inside Chicago) and army patrols west of the Mississippi diminished the threat from Amerindian raids, so pioneer were able to move into all of Illinois from the easterly and southern emigrant trails.
After assembly of the Erie Canal with increasing traffic and trade through the Great Lakes, Chicago was established in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, at one of the several natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. 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 new immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden.
Railroads freed most of the territory of Illinois and other mid-western states from the tyranny of water transport; no longer was a locale near a river or canal a need to ship bulk goods.
Illinois was an meaningful manufacturing center amid both world wars.
Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan, Land of Lincoln, which has been displayed on its license plates since 1954. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is positioned in the state capital of Springfield, and the Barack Obama Presidential Center will be instead of in Chicago by 2020.
11.1 Illinois State Board of education See also: Illinois Confederation and List of counties in Illinois "Illinois" is the undivided spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois Native Americans, a name that was spelled in many different ways in the early records. American scholars previously thought the name "Illinois" meant "man" or "men" in the Miami-Illinois language, with the initial iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois. This etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for 'man' is ireniwa and plural 'men' is ireniwaki.
The name "Illinois" derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe wa "he speaks the regular way".
The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, when French colonists had settled in the area.
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. Main article: History of Illinois Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in Union County, Illinois American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois region for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.
Cahokia, the biggest county-wide chiefdom and urban center of the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was positioned near present-day Collinsville, Illinois.
According to Suzanne Austin Alchon, "At one site in the central Illinois River valley, one-third of all grownups died as a result of violent injuries." The next primary power in the region was the Illinois Confederation or Illini, a political alliance. As the Illini declined amid the Beaver Wars era, members of the Algonquian-speaking Potawatomi, Miami, Sauk, and other tribes including the Fox (Mesquakie), Ioway, Kickapoo, Mascouten, Piankashaw, Shawnee, Wea, and Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) came into the region from the east and north around the Great Lakes. Further information: Illinois Country and Illinois County, Virginia Illinois in 1718, approximate undivided state region highlighted, from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L'Isle. French explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explored the Illinois River in 1673.
Marquette soon after established a mission at the Grand Village of the Illinois in Illinois Country.
French Empire Canadiens came south to settle especially along the Mississippi River, and Illinois was part of first New France and then of of La Louisiane until 1763, when it passed to the British with their defeat of France in the Seven Years' War.
A several British soldiers were posted in Illinois, but several British or American pioneer moved there, as the Crown made it part of the territory reserved for Indians west of the Appalachians, and then part of the British Province of Quebec.
In 1778, George Rogers Clark claimed Illinois County for Virginia.
See also: History of Chicago and History of Nauvoo, Illinois 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, an early French settlement.
During the discussions dominant up to Illinois' admission to the Union, the proposed northern boundary of the state was moved twice. The initial 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 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 furnish it with a usable lakefront, the initial 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 and the rest envisioned a canal that would connect the Chicago and Illinois rivers, and thus, connect the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.
The State of Illinois before to the Civil War In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S.
In 1837, the state legislators representing Sangamon County, under the leadership of state representative Abraham Lincoln, succeeded in having the capital moved to Springfield, where a fifth capitol building was constructed.
When Illinois became a sovereign state in 1818, the Ordinance no longer applied, and about 900 slaves were held in the state.
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.
Located in Hancock County along the Mississippi River, Nauvoo flourished and soon rivaled Chicago for the position of the state's biggest city.
Chicago attained eminence as a Great Lakes port and then as an Illinois and Michigan Canal port after 1848, and as a rail core soon afterward.
By 1857, Chicago was Illinois' biggest city. With the tremendous expansion of mines and factories in the state in the 19th century, Illinois was the ground for the formation of workforce unions in the United States.
Dix, Illinois became one of the first states to establish a fitness of state-supported treatment of mental illness and disabilities, replacing small-town almshouses. Main article: Illinois in the American Civil War During the American Civil War, Illinois ranked fourth in men who served (more than 250,000) in the Union Army, a figure surpassed by only New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
At the turn of the 20th century, Illinois had a populace of nearly 5 million.
Whites were 98% of the state's population. Bolstered by continued immigration from southern and easterly Europe, and by the black Great Migration from the South, Illinois interval and emerged as one of the most meaningful states in the union.
Oil strikes in Marion County and Crawford County lead to a boom in 1937, and, by 1939, Illinois ranked fourth in U.S.
Illinois produced 6.1 percent of total United States military armaments produced amid World War II, ranking seventh among the 48 states. 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 1957, Argonne National Laboratory, near Chicago, activated the first experimental nuclear power generating fitness in the United States.
With eleven plants presently operating, Illinois leads all states in the amount of electricity generated from nuclear power. In 1961, Illinois became the first state in the country to adopt the recommendation of the American Law Institute and pass a elected criminal code revision that repealed the law against sodomy.
Illinois, showing primary cities and roads Illinois is positioned in the Midwest Region of the United States and is one of the eight states and Canadian Province of Ontario in the bi-national Great Lakes region of North America.
Illinois' easterly border with Indiana consists of a north-south line at 87 31 30 west longitude in Lake Michigan at the north, to the Wabash River in the south above Post Vincennes.
This marks the beginning of Illinois' southern border with Kentucky, which runs along the northern shoreline of the Ohio River. Most of the border with Missouri and Iowa is the Mississippi River; Kaskaskia is an exclave of Illinois, lying west of the Mississippi and reachable only from Missouri.
The northeastern border of Illinois lies in Lake Michigan, inside which Illinois shares a water boundary with the state of Michigan, as well as Wisconsin and Indiana. In extreme northwestern Illinois, the Driftless Area, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, is situated in a small part of the state.
Other highlands include the Shawnee Hills in the south, and there is varying topography along its rivers; the Illinois River bisects the state northeast to southwest.
Charles Mound, the highest natural point in Illinois at 1235 feet, is positioned in the northwestern part of the state.
Chicago on Lake Michigan is the third biggest city in the United States.
Illinois has three primary geographical divisions.
Northern Illinois is dominated by Chicagoland, which is the town/city of Chicago and its suburbs, and the adjoining exurban region into which the metropolis is expanding.
As defined by the federal government, the Chicago metro region includes a several counties in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, and has a populace of over 9.8 million citizens .
The town/city of Rockford, Illinois' third biggest city and center of the state's fourth biggest urbane area, sits along Interstates 39 and 90 some 75 miles (121 km) northwest of Chicago.
The Quad Cities region, positioned along the Mississippi River in northern Illinois, had a populace of 381,342 in 2011.
The midsection of Illinois is a second primary division, called Central Illinois.
It is an region of mostly prairie and known as the Heart of Illinois.
The section (west of the Illinois River) was originally part of the Military Tract of 1812 and forms the conspicuous bulge of the state.
The third division is Southern Illinois, comprising the region south of U.S.
Southern Illinois is the site of the ancient town/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. This region has a somewhat warmer winter climate, different range of crops (including some cotton farming in the past), more rugged topography (due to the region remaining unglaciated amid the Illinoian Stage, unlike most of the rest of the state), as well as small-scale petroleum deposits and coal mining.
The other somewhat momentous concentration of populace in Southern Illinois is the Carbondale-Marion-Herrin, Illinois Combined Travel Destination centered on Carbondale and Marion, a two-county region that is home to 123,272 residents. 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 region is often called "downstate" Illinois.
Thus, some metros/cities in Northern Illinois, such as De - Kalb, which is west of Chicago, and Rockford which is actually north of Chicago are considered to be "downstate".
Koppen climate types of Illinois Average annual rain 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 snow flurry exceeds 38 inches (965 mm) in the Chicago area, while the southern portion of the state normally receives less than 14 inches (356 mm). The all-time high temperature was 117 F (47 C), recorded on July 14, 1954, at East St.
Illinois averages approximately 51 days of thunderstorm activeness a year, which rates 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. While tornadoes are no more powerful in Illinois than other states, some of Tornado Alley's deadliest tornadoes on record have occurred in the state.
On November 18, 2013, tornadoes touched down and ripped through Washington, Illinois.
Dot Density Map Displaying the Population of Illinois The United States Enumeration Bureau estimates that the populace of Illinois was 12,801,539 on July 1, 2016, a 0.23% decline since the 2010 United States Census. Illinois is the most crowded state in the Midwest region.
Chicago, the third most crowded city in the United States, is the center of the Chicago urbane area.
Chicagoland, as this region is known locally, comprises only 8% of the territory area of the state, but contains 65% of the state's residents.
Illinois Racial Breakdown of Population The state's most crowded ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 83.5% in 1970 to 63.3% in 2011. As of 2011, 49.4% of Illinois's populace younger than age 1 were minorities (note: kids born to white Hispanics are counted as minority group). people. In 2007, 6.9% of Illinois' populace was reported as being under age 5, 24.9% under age 18 and 12.1% were age 65 and over.
According to the 2007 estimates, 21.1% of the populace had German ancestry, 13.3% had Irish ancestry, 8% had British ancestry, 7.9% had Polish ancestry, 6.4% had Italian ancestry, 4.6% listed themselves as American, 2.4% had Swedish ancestry, 2.2% had French ancestry, other than Basque, 1.6% had Dutch ancestry, and 1.4% had Norwegian ancestry. Illinois also has large numbers of African Americans and Latinos (mostly Mexicans and Puerto Ricans).
In 2000, 23.3% of Illinois' populace lived in the town/city of Chicago, 43.3% in Cook County, and 65.6% in the counties of the Chicago urbane area: Will, Du - Page, Kane, Lake, and Mc - Henry counties, as well as Cook County.
See also: Illinois statistical areas, List of metros/cities in Illinois, and List of suburbs and villages in Illinois Chicago is the biggest city in the state and the third most crowded city in the United States, with its 2010 populace of 2,695,598.
Enumeration Bureau presently lists seven other metros/cities with populations of over 100,000 inside Illinois.
Based upon the Enumeration Bureau's official 2010 population: Aurora, a Chicago satellite town that eclipsed Rockford for the title of second most crowded city in Illinois; its 2010 populace was 197,899.
Rockford, at 152,871, is the third biggest city in the state, and is the biggest city in the state not positioned inside the Chicago suburbs.
Joliet, positioned in urbane Chicago, is the fourth biggest city in the state, with a populace of 147,433.
It is positioned in the Illinois portion of Greater St.
Other primary urban areas include the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area, which has a combined populace of almost 230,000 citizens , the Illinois portion of the Quad Cities region with about 215,000 citizens , and the Bloomington-Normal region with a combined populace of over 165,000.
Largest metros/cities or suburbs in Illinois Main article: Languages of Illinois The official language of Illinois is English, although between 1923 and 1969 state law gave official status to "the American language." Nearly 80% of citizens in Illinois speak English natively, and most of the rest speak it fluently as a second language. A number of dialects of American English are spoken, ranging from Inland Northern American English and African American Vernacular English around Chicago, to Midland American English in Central Illinois to Southern American English in the far south.
Roman Catholics constitute the single biggest theological denomination in Illinois; they are heavily concentrated in and around Chicago, and account for nearly 30% of the state's population. However, taken together as a group, the various Protestant denominations comprise a greater percentage of the state's populace than do Catholics.
Illinois has one of the biggest concentrations of Missouri Synod Lutherans in the United States.
Illinois played an meaningful part in the early Latter Day Saint movement, with Nauvoo, Illinois, becoming a gathering place for Mormons in the early 1840s.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the biggest of the sects to emerge from the Mormon schism, has over 55,000 adherents in Illinois today. Chicago and its suburbs are also home to a large and burgeoning population of Hindus, Muslims, Baha'is and Buddhists. Muslims constituted the biggest non-Christian group with 359,264 adherents. Illinois has the biggest concentration of Muslims by state in the nation with 2800 Muslims per 100,000 people. The biggest and earliest surviving Baha'i House of Worship in the world is positioned in Wilmette, Illinois and the earliest standing mosque in the U.S.
Main article: Economy of Illinois See also: Illinois locations by per capita income The dollar gross state product for Illinois was estimated to be US$772 billion in 2015. The state's 2010 per capita gross state product was estimated to be US$45,302, the state's per capita personal income was estimated to be US$41,411 in 2009. Illinois' state income tax is figured by multiplying net income by a flat rate.
In 1990, that rate was set at 3%, but in 2010, the General Assembly voted in a temporary increase in the rate to 5%; the new rate went into effect on January 1, 2011; the personal income rate partially sunset on January 1, 2015 to 3.75%, while the corporate income tax fell to 5.25% There are two rates for state revenue tax: 6.25% for general merchandise and 1% for qualifying food, drugs, and medical appliances. The property tax is a primary source of tax revenue for small-town government taxing districts.
Illinois' primary agricultural outputs are corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products, and wheat.
In most years, Illinois is either the first or second state for the highest manufacturing of soybeans, with a harvest of 427.7 million bushels (11.64 million metric tons) in 2008, after Iowa's manufacturing of 444.82 million bushels (12.11 million metric tons). Illinois rates second in U.S.
Corn manufacturing with more than 1.5 billion bushels produced annually. With a manufacturing capacity of 1.5 billion gallons per year, Illinois is a top producer of ethanol; ranking third in the United States in 2011. Illinois is a prestige in food manufacturing and meat processing. Although Chicago may no longer be "Hog Butcher for the World," the Chicago region remains a global center for food manufacture and meat processing, with many plants, refining houses, and distribution facilities concentrated in the region of the former Union Stock Yards. Illinois also produces wine, and the state is home to two American viticultural areas.
The German immigrants from agricultural backgrounds who settled in Illinois in the mid- to late 19th century are in part responsible for the profusion of fruit orchards in that region of Illinois. Illinois' universities are actively researching alternative agricultural products as alternative crops.
Illinois is one of the nation's manufacturing leaders, boasting annual value added productivity by manufacturing of over $107 billion in 2006.
As of 2011, Illinois is ranked as the 4th most productive manufacturing state in the country, behind California, Texas, and Ohio. About three-quarters of the state's manufacturers are positioned in the Northeastern Opportunity Return Region, with 38 percent of Illinois' approximately 18,900 manufacturing plants positioned in Cook County.
As of 2006, the dominant manufacturing industries in Illinois, based upon value-added, were chemical manufacturing ($18.3 billion), machinery manufacturing ($13.4 billion), food manufacturing ($12.9 billion), fabricated metal products ($11.5 billion), transit equipment ($7.4 billion), plastics and rubber products ($7.0 billion), and computer and electronic products ($6.1 billion). See also: List of power stations in Illinois and Solar power in Illinois Illinois is a net importer of fuels for energy, despite large coal resources and some minor petroleum production.
Illinois exports electricity, ranking fifth among states in electricity manufacturing and seventh in electricity consumption. The coal trade of Illinois has its origins in the middle 19th century, when company doers such as Jacob Loose identified coal in locations such as Sangamon County.
Jacob Bunn contributed to the evolution of the Illinois coal industry, and was a founder and owner of the Western Coal & Mining Company of Illinois.
According to the Illinois State Geological Survey, 211 billion tons of bituminous coal are estimated to lie under the surface, having a total heating value greater than the estimated petroleum deposits in the Arabian Peninsula. However, this coal has a high sulfur content, which causes acid precipitation unless special equipment is used to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. Many Illinois power plants are not equipped to burn high-sulfur coal.
In 1999, Illinois produced 40.4 million tons of coal, but only 17 million tons (42%) of Illinois coal was consumed in Illinois.
Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states and countries.
In 2008, Illinois exported 3 million tons of coal and was projected to export 9 million tons in 2011, as demand for energy grows in places such as China, India, elsewise in Asia and Europe. As of 2010, Illinois was ranked third in recoverable coal reserves at producing mines in the Nation. Most of the coal produced in Illinois is exported to other states, while much of the coal burned for power in Illinois (21 million tons in 1998) is mined in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. Illinois is a dominant refiner of oil in the American Midwest, with a combined crude petroleum distillation capacity of nearly 900,000 barrels per day (140,000 m3/d).
However, Illinois has very limited crude petroleum proved reserves that account for less than 1% of U.S.
Illinois is ranked 14th in petroleum manufacturing among states, with a daily output of approximately 28,000 barrels (4,500 m3) in 2005. Nuclear power arguably began in Illinois with the Chicago Pile-1, the world's first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in the world's first nuclear reactor, assembled on the University of Chicago campus.
Illinois ranked first in the country in 2010 in both nuclear capacity and nuclear generation.
Generation from its nuclear power plants accounted for 12 percent of the Nation's total. In 2007, 48% of Illinois' electricity was generated using nuclear power. The Morris Operation is the only de facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States.
Illinois has seen burgeoning interest in the use of wind power for electrical generation. Most of Illinois was rated in 2009 as "marginal or fair" for wind energy manufacturing by the U.S.
As a result, more areas of Illinois have turn into prospective wind farm sites.
As of September 2009, Illinois had 1116.06 MW of installed wind power nameplate capacity with another 741.9 MW under construction. Illinois ranked ninth among U.S.
States in installed wind power capacity, and sixteenth by potential capacity. Large wind farms in Illinois include Twin Groves, Rail Splitter, Eco - Grove, and Mendota Hills. As of 2007, wind energy represented only 1.7% of Illinois' energy production, and it was estimated that wind power could furnish 5 10% of the state's energy needs. Also, the Illinois General Assembly mandated in 2007 that by 2025, 25% of all electricity generated in Illinois is to come from renewable resources. Illinois is ranked second in corn manufacturing among U.S.
States, and Illinois corn is used to produce 40% of the ethanol consumed in the United States. The Archer Daniels Midland corporation in Decatur, Illinois is the world's dominant producer of ethanol from corn.
The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), the world's only facility dedicated to researching the ways and means of converting corn (maize) to ethanol is positioned on the ground of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the partners in the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a $500 million biofuels research universal funded by oil giant BP. Illinois has various exhibitions; the greatest concentration of these is in Chicago.
The Illinois State Museum boasts a compilation of 13.5 million objects that tell the story of Illinois life, land, citizens , and art.
Vandalia State House State Historic Site in Vandalia Illinois is a prestige in music education having hosted the Midwest Clinic: An International Band and Orchestra Conference since 1946, as well being home to the Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA), one of the biggest experienced music educator's organizations in the country.
Each summer since 2004, Southern Illinois University Carbondale has played host to the Southern Illinois Music Festival, which presents dozens of performances throughout the region.
Chicago, in the northeast corner of the state, is a primary center for music in the midwestern United States where distinct ive forms of blues (greatly responsible for the future creation of modern and roll), and home music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.
Orchestras in Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Sinfonietta. As one of the United States' primary metropolises, all primary sports leagues have squads headquartered in Chicago.
The Chicago Cubs of the National League play in the second-oldest primary league stadium (Wrigley Field) and are widely known for having the longest championship drought in all of primary American sport: not winning the World Series since 1908. That drought finally came to an end when the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians in seven games to win the 2016 World Series.
Many minor league squads also call Illinois their home.
The Southern Illinois Miners based out of Marion in the Frontier League The Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League in Sauget, Illinois The two most prominent are the Illinois Fighting Illini and Northwestern Wildcats, both members of the Big Ten Conference and the only ones competing in one of the so-called "Power Five conferences".
The Northern Illinois Huskies from De - Kalb, Illinois compete in the Mid-American Conference winning 4 conference championships and earning a bid in the Orange Bowl along with producing Heisman candidate Jordan Lynch at quarterback.
The Illinois State Redbirds (Normal, adjoining to Bloomington) and Southern Illinois Salukis (the latter representing Southern Illinois University's chief campus in Carbondale) are members of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) for non-football sports and the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC).
The Western Illinois Leathernecks (Macomb) are full members of the Summit League, which does not sponsor football, and also compete in the MVFC.
The Eastern Illinois Panthers (Charleston) are members of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
The Chicago State Cougars, from the city's south side, compete in the Western Athletic Conference.
The Chicago Blitz, United States Football League 1982 84 The Schaumburg Boomers and Lake County Fielders are members of the North American League, and the Southern Illinois Miners, Gateway Grizzlies, Joliet Slammers, Windy City Thunder - Bolts and Normal Corn - Belters belong to the Frontier League.
Illinois also has a several short tracks and dragstrips.
Illinois features a several golf courses such as Olympia Fields, Medinah, Midlothian, Cog Hill and Conway Farms, which have often hosted the BMW Championship, Western Open and Women's Western Open.
For a more elected list, see List of protected areas of Illinois.
The Illinois Centennial Column in Chicago's Logan Square.
The Illinois state parks fitness began in 1908 with what is now Fort Massac State Park, becoming the first park in a fitness encompassing over 60 parks and about the same number of recreational and wildlife areas.
Areas under the protection and control of the National Park Service include: the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor near Lockport; the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail; the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield; the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail; the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail; the American Discovery Trail, and the Pullman National Monument.
Main articles: Government of Illinois and Law of Illinois The government of Illinois, under the Constitution of Illinois, has three chapters of government: Executive, legislative and judicial.
Legislative functions are granted to the Illinois General Assembly.
The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature, composed of the 118-member Illinois House of Representatives and the 59-member Illinois Senate.
The government of Illinois has various departments, agencies, boards and commissions, but the so-called code departments furnish most of the state's services. The Judiciary of Illinois is the unified court fitness of Illinois.
The administrative divisions of Illinois are counties, townships, precincts, cities, towns, villages, and special-purpose districts. The basic subdivision of Illinois are the 102 counties. 85 Of the 102 counties are in turn divided into townships and precincts. Municipal governments are the cities, villages, and incorporated towns. Some localities possess home rule, which allows them to govern themselves to a certain extent. Illinois State Capitol in downtown Springfield Illinois is a Democratic stronghold and considered one of the most Democratic states in the nation. Historically, Illinois was a political swing state, with near-parity existing between the Republican and the Democratic parties.
However, in recent elections, the Democratic Party has attained ground and Illinois has come to be seen as a solid "blue" state in presidential contests. Chicago and most of Cook County votes have long been firmly Democratic.
Republicans continue to prevail in the outlying Chicago exurban areas, as well as non-urban northern and central Illinois; Republican support is also strong in southern Illinois, outside of the East St.
From 1920 until 1972, the state was carried by the victor of each of these presidential elections 14 elections. In fact, Illinois was long seen as a nationwide bellwether, supporting the winner in every election in the 20th century except for 1916 and 1976.
In 2014, Republican Bruce Rauner defeated Governor Quinn 50% 46% to turn into Illinois' first Republican governor in 12 years when he was sworn in on January 12, 2015, while Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was re-elected with 53% of the vote.
Was imprisoned for bribery; Secretary of State Paul Powell was investigated and found to have attained great richness through bribes, and State Auditor of Public Accounts (Comptroller) Orville Hodge was imprisoned for embezzlement.
Barack Obama was born and raised in Hawaii (other than a four-year reconstructionof his childhood spent in Indonesia) and made Illinois his home and base after completing law school and later represented the state in the US Senate.
Only one person propel President of the United States was actually born in Illinois.
Three of them have represented Illinois, the most of any single state: Carol Moseley-Braun, Barack Obama, and Roland Burris, who was appointed to replace Obama after his election to the presidency.
Two families from Illinois have played especially prominent part s in the Democratic Party, gaining both statewide and nationwide fame.
The Stevenson family, rooted in central Illinois, has provided four generations of Illinois propel leadership.
Lewis Stevenson (1868 1932), son of Adlai, served as Illinois Secretary of State.
Adlai Stevenson II (1900 1965), son of Lewis, served as Governor of Illinois and as the US Ambassador to the United Nations; he was also the Democratic party's presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956, losing both elections to Dwight Eisenhower.
Illinois State Board of education Main article: Illinois State Board of Education The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is autonomous of the governor and the state legislature, and administers enhance education in the state.
Local municipalities and their respective school districts operate individual enhance schools but the ISBE audits performance of enhance schools with the Illinois School Report Card.
See also: List of school districts in Illinois and List of high schools in Illinois For a more elected list, see List of universities and universities in Illinois.
The Main Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is home to the Rare Book & Manuscript Library As of 19 August 2010, six of these project in the "first tier" (that is, the top quartile) among the top 500 National Universities in the United States, as determined by the U.S.
News & World Report rankings: the University of Chicago (4), Northwestern University (12), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (41), Loyola University Chicago (99), the Illinois Institute of Technology (108), De - Paul University (123), University of Illinois at Chicago (129), Illinois State University (149), Southern Illinois University Carbondale (153), and Northern Illinois University (194). The University of Chicago is continuously ranked as one of the world's top ten universities on various autonomous college rankings, and its Booth School of Business, along with Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management persistently project inside the top 5 graduate company schools in the nation and top 10 in the world.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is often ranked among the best engineering schools in the world and in United States.
Illinois also has more than 20 additional accredited four-year universities, both enhance and private, and dozens of small liberal arts universities athwart the state.
Additionally, Illinois supports 49 enhance community universities in the Illinois Community College System.
See also: List of airports in Illinois, List of Illinois Routes, List of Illinois barns s, and Category:Illinois waterways Because of its central locale and its adjacency to the Rust Belt and Grain Belt, Illinois is a nationwide crossroads for air, auto, rail, and truck traffic.
University of Illinois Willard Airport Illinois Major Rail Network Chicago is a nationwide Amtrak core and in-state passengers are served by Amtrak's Illinois Service, featuring the Chicago to Carbondale Illini and Saluki, the Chicago to Quincy Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr, and the Chicago to St.
In addition to the state's rail lines, the Mississippi River and Illinois River furnish major transit routes for the state's agricultural interests.
Illinois is among many US states with a well advanced interstate highway system.
Illinois has the distinct ion of having the most major (two-digit) interstates pass through it among all the 50 states with 13 (with the new addition of Interstate 41 near Wisconsin), as well as the 3rd most interstate mileage behind California and Texas. Illinois license plate design used throughout the 1980s and 1990s, displaying the Land of Lincoln slogan that has been featured on the state's plates since 1954.
Outline of Illinois organized list of topics about Illinois Springfield, Illinois: Illinois General Assembly.
The official language of the State of Illinois is English.
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