Corn, Soybeans, Steel, Iron Ore, Cotton, Farm Machinery, Manufacturing, Hogs
Natural Resources
Coal ( It’s coal reserves are greater than any other state east of the Rocky Mts.)
Illinois - History
1673
Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explore area
1818
Illinois admitted as the 21st state
1825
Erie Canal completed, turning Chicago into a major port for shipping and handling
1871
The Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of the city
Present Day
Chicago boasts the world’s second busiest airport: O’Hare International, and also has the world’s second tallest building: the Sears Tower. The city’s steel mills still remain productive.
Illinois - Facts
Cairo, at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the southernmost town in Illinois, was a center for the cotton industry. But years later, farmers in the region switched to more profitable soybeans
The Driftless Zone, an area which was by-passed by the continental glaciers, occupies far northwestern Illinois. As a result, the topography is more rugged than that usually associated with the Midwest.
The term "Prairie" indicates grassland, with a few trees and a moderate climate. The Prairie covers much of central Illinois
Little Egypt is the name given to an area in southern Illinois possessing many qualities like the country of Egypt: for example, the city of "Cairo" or the region’s prominent shipping of grain
Cahokia, located in the suburbs of St. Louis, MO, was Illinoid’s first permanent settlement and is now a Native American ruin
Illinois has the nation’s fifth largest Gross State Product (GSP) after California, New York, Texas and Florida
Illinois vies with Iowa yearly as the nation’s top corn producer
Chicago is known as "The Windy City" or "The Second City."