| Show WL fc 0 r A J J on the tha illinois ll linol river above alton prepared by national geographic society D C service TH the opening of the century of progress Iro gresa exposition at chicago in 1933 1033 the city and the state ot of illinois will be hosts to thousands of visitors not many decades ago all illinois was forest clad her roads were indian trails her buildings tepees and pioneer huts buts then tile pioneers and woodsmen woodsman woods men pushed from the east in growing numbers they aliey came in flatboats flat boats and covered wagons later they came by steamboat and railroad today the old routes of the earliest pioneers echo with the hum of airplanes nature endowed the state with a fertile soil boll to nourish mankind and stored treasures of minerals beneath to feed mans machines of travel and industry more than all it blessed the state with a rugged healthful climate which plays so large a part in fixing the temperament and destiny of peoples and nations what mar man has made of 0 these factors la is the story of illinois today glimpse it for a moment as from an airplane win winging ing northward over crisscrossed arteries of concrete and steel and water with towns and villages knotting them into a network forests and orchards of fruit give way to somber mines of coal the earth Is carpeted for miles with waving corn cities and tall stacks of mills become thicker there is a broad belt of green pastures alive with dairy herds then comes a great tb throbbing robbing city under a pall of smoke with humanity snuggling closer and climbing higher here acres of emerald parks parka intersperse drab roofed squares and finally a burst of graceful towers edges an inland sea every village every hamlet has its story some in the dim past others in the thriving present traces of colonial days are few in illinois and towns show true to type as one rolls rolla over the smooth concrete highways but each adds its mite of story and there la Is no easier way to see them than by logging jogging north over the aptly named meridian highway through the center of the state miles from southern tip to northern border from south to north in the tha course of this journey the traveler will see the aspect of nature change as in few other states in egypt so named by the pioneers because of its fertility pecans cotton tobacco magnolias bald cypress and lotus are growing in the north sugar beets hickory tamarack and forests of white pine brave the biting winter most of kentucky and virginia are north of cairo while boston Is farther south than zion in the south the frost Is 13 usually gone by the end of march in the north it keeps the farmer fanner guessing until may the proposed trip will be an easy one tor for no other state has more miles of concrete roads the automobilist who starts his car in new york heads across the continent to seattle down the pacific coast to los angeles over the wide open spaces to new orleans and then back through richmond and washington will have covered less than miles that are paved with cement concrete in illinois in one year more paved highway was added than the distance from chicago to portland maine and 2 aioo men and horses were employed at the task cairo Is both the southern up tip and within a few miles of the lowest spot in illinois only feet above sea level it Is a city rich in memories there gen ulysses S grant had his headquarters from september ISO to april 1802 when the illinois central railroad pushed across the state cairo satis batts tied fled that the ohio river never could be bridged saw itself a metropolis where trains and boats would always meet charles dickens was one who bought a lot in the city of dreams before he crossed from england and made the journey west to see it the temperamental river mer had moved and it was far beneath the water he ha blamed cairo and cairo has never forgiven him for what he be wrote cairo a transfer point few of the graceful old river steamers remain both rivers have been bridged and cairo lives in another age it la Is a transfer point between water and rail for the government barge line to new orleans and in winter the northern terminal A single tow of too long squat barges with a powerful tug ing can carry the grain produced on acres they bring up tho the products of the southern states and of distant lands sugar coffee bauxite sulphur burlap sisal and b carry rry back the grain and manufactures of the middle west like the pi pirogues rogues and flatboats flat boats from illinois which go years ago drifted down the river with flour smoked meat and corn juice moonshine these steel barges plod eight miles an hour no faster than marquette paddled in his birch canoe but the rattle of the electric truck has replaced the song of the roustabout and one close tied fleet of barges carries the freight of a dozen splashing river boats the highway leaves diro cairo curving through the ozarks back in the bills families are living in primitive log cabins egypto fields ot of cotton which dare frost but escape the boll weevil change around anna into orchards of apples peaches and peers pears and beds of asparagus and strawberries beauty spots are preserved as state stata forests and parks bald knob 1030 feet high crowns a hardwood tract another reserve contains the tha only stand of short leaf pine in the state fern cliff park has a wealth of tern fern covered boulders bowl ders and waterfalls and in giant city park nature has lined great square rocks like streets at tunnel hill the illinois central has bag bored a foot tunnel as part of 0 tin the mlle cutoff between edgewood ill and fulton R ry ky y crucible clay of the highest grade comes from around carbondale north of anna and 51 54 of the counties la in illinois produce coal most of which la Is mined in adjacent franklin and WU camson alamson counties through the tha coal fields marlon marion where robert G ingersoll studied to be a lawyer and where gen john A logan made the speech which kept southern illinois in the union Is 19 miles east near it Is the town once known as bloody herrin politics has changed and the barbershops barber shops and stores now dow have signs in their windows this place will be closed at noon coon for prayer benton Is farther north over a straight seam of coal from 7 to 14 feet thick estimated to contain two and a halt half billion tons it Is the cen ter of vast mines five of which la in different years have held world records for production orient no 2 at west frankfort often bringing to the surface between and tons a day Is one of the largest coal mines in the world it Is electrically equipped and its lock rooms and baths for miners a requirement under the stats state law could lave a regiment from black to white without overcrowding the tha deepest bituminous mine rol ane shaft in the tha country more I 1 than han 1000 feet Is near assumption adventurers searching for gold have settled continents but the lasting prosperity of nations rests on structural material and baser ores coal iron oil copper limestone and the humble clay and sand pennsylvania and west virginia and in some years kentucky produce more coal than illinois but they rank below it in nn an touched deposits of bituminous our automobile highway now crosses the almost forgotten trail followed by col george rogers clark in patrick henry sent this youth of and a band of kentucky frontiersmen to establish the vast northwest territory as part of virginia they came down the ohio and unfurled the stars and stripes for the first time in illinois over fort massac now a parl grain and oil fields of wheat and oats alternate with corn and oil replaces coal under the surface as the road runs north through centralia oil was discovered in dark clark county 20 26 years ago and add once the state produced more oil than penn sylvania it still produces some barrels a year but it is 13 as a refan ing and distribution distribution center that I 1 nois Is most important to the oil industry the pipe line radiate to tw the and canada frocil f atlantic the gulf wood river and roxana roxada f one of these lines ll trail of the covered wagon between betwee first vincennes and Ca cabalda bolda the this rout rou mall in illinois came along alone off every cw in 1805 towns were spaced good d dayi a Y Is a 25 miles which then was journey in a the five ga of at olney Is one ot of the home boule havens in the state and for formerly werlY the late robert ridgway tta the birds in of of the division curator mi n d national anus museum e u 8 united states feathered a world authority on these he creatures with varieties rated illinois rich in bird life south north to returning to tile the dut vandalla highway we come coma to old here I 1 Is s the north of centralia 1820 1 31 of if state capitol bull building dang and 33 now OW later a county courthouse architecture of a pas P museum its are the drab two story contrasts with age buildings around the vand vandalla atia CUT city square |
