Point of Departure for Lewis & Clark - Confluence of Missouri & Mississippi Rivers
Weeks after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson charged Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with exploring the Missouri River and its tributaries. In December, the men and the thirty-odd members of their group made a camp near Hartford, Illinois opposite the entrance to the river. They departed in May of 1804 for an exploration that would take them over two years.
Lady Elgin Shipwreck - Glencoe, IL
On September 7, 1860, a group of abolitionist Union Guards from Wisconsin boarded the steamer Lady Elgin to return home after attending a Chicago rally for presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas. About seven miles from the coast of Winnetka, the schooner Augusta collided with the Lady Elgin. Thinking they had only glanced the other ship, the Augusta continued to Chicago, but the Elgin quickly disintegrated. Crew and passengers struggled to save themselves as the boat sank and the storm raged. The first survivors to reach land alerted those on shore to the disaster, but even with the heroic efforts of rescuers, approximately 400 people died. At the time, it was the greatest loss of life ever suffered on the Great Lakes.
The Chatsworth Wreck - Chatsworth, IL
A passenger train was headed from Peoria to Niagara Falls on a hot August night in 1887, when the driver saw a burning bridge just north of town. The double-engined train couldn’t stop on time, and the back cars telescoped into the front ones in one of the worst train wrecks in history. Approximately 85 people died and many more were wounded.
Woodhenge and Monk’s Mound - Cahokia, IL
The Cahokia Mounds are probably the most extensive prehistoric human remains in the United States. The site consists of 85 mounds spread over an area of 2000 acres. For centuries, Native Americans lived on this land, and the mounds are believed to have been built between 450 and 750 years ago. Monk’s Mound is the most predominant. Nearby, the people who lived here built a calendar circle that archaeologists named Woodhenge because of its resemblance to England's Stonehenge.
Stillman’s Defeat - Stillman Valley, IL
The Black Hawk War was the last time the native residents of Illinois joined forces to resist the White settlers. The U.S. government wanted the Indians to vacate the region according to the terms of a treaty most chiefs said did not represent them. On May 14, 1832, the first battle of the war took place after untrained Illinois militiamen killed two Sauk warriors who were relaying a message under a white flag. Chief Black Hawk and his braves responded with an ambush, and the militia retreated.
Buffalo Bill’s Birthplace - LeClaire, IA
Born just across the river from Illinois, Bill Cody was a Union Soldier, a rider on the Pony Express, and a frontier scout before entering show business. He appeared on stage for the first time in Chicago, and he started Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in 1883. The show, a vehicle for the stories, skills, and characters of the West, toured Europe and North America to massive acclaim as the frontier itself was closing.
Havana Power Plant (Neteler Mounds) - Havana, IL
About 1000 A.D., people of the Mississippian culture began to spread northwestward from their center at Cahokia into present-day Fulton County. The Neteler mounds were part of this culture and once existed at the location of the Havana Power Plant.
Illinois & Michigan Canal - Morris, IL
The last major canal constructed in the United States, the Illinois & Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes with the waters of the Mississippi and thus with the Gulf of Mexico. It took twelve years, six million dollars, and the deaths of an uncounted number of Irish workers to build the waterway, which opened in 1848. Even before the railroads came, it established Chicago as a major transportation hub. But the railroads did come shortly after the canal began operations, and a rail line parallel to the Illinois & Michigan was built only five years after its completion.
Ronald Reagan’s Boyhood Home - Dixon, IL
This was home to Ronald Reagan and his family from 1920-1932. It has been restored and furnished to appear as it did during that period.
Saukenuk Village - Rock Island, IL
In the mid-1700s, the Sauks built their main village at Saukenuk. Chief Black Hawk was born here in 1767, and it was near here that he fought the last Indian-American battle east of the Mississippi after realizing escape across the river was impossible. At the end of the two-day long battle, Black Hawk was captured.
Cherry Mine Disaster - Cherry, IL
On November 13, 1909, a fire started in the Cherry coalmine, trapping hundreds of men below ground. Two hundred and twenty nine miners lost their lives in one of the worst mine disasters in United States history. The scale of the tragedy, the poverty of the surviving families, and the youth of some of the victims became a catalyst for changes in worker’s compensation and child labor laws and inspired greater safety standards across the industry.
The Diamond Mine Disaster - Diamond, IL
On February 16, 1883, the Diamond Mine of the Wilmington Coal Mining and Manufacturing Company collapsed and flooded. Seventy-four men died in the disaster, with the youngest victims only thirteen and fourteen years old. Only twenty-eight of the bodies were retrieved. Forty-six miners were entombed when the mine’s opening was sealed after over a month of recovery efforts.
First Commercial Nuclear Power Reactor - Morris, IL
The atomic age was born in Illinois with the creation of the first planned atomic reaction, and the state now has more operating nuclear reactors than anywhere else in the U.S. The Dresden I. was the first commercial plant, and also one of the first to be shut down prematurely because of malfunction.
Emmett Till’s Grave - Alsip, IL
In 1955, black, 14-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till spent the summer with relatives in Money, Mississippi. One day after working in the cotton fields, Till and his cousins stopped at Bryant's Grocery store to buy some candy. Till made the mistake of talking to Ms Bryant, a white woman. That night, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and J.W. Milam, Roy's half-brother abducted Mr Till. Three days later, his mutilated body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. Till’s mother decided to have an open-casket funeral for her son to show the world what had been done to him. 50,000 people attended, and photographs of Till’s defiled face were shown around the world. An all-white jury acquitted Bryant and Milam.
Parapets with Dry Moat - Fort Kaskaskia, IL
Fort Kaskaskia sits on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and the site of the original town of Kaskaskia, which was once the first state capitol of Illinois. The fort was built by the French in 1759. When the French and Indian War ended in 1763 and the Treaty of Paris ceded all French possessions east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain, the people of Kaskaskia destroyed most of the fort. Only the parapets and dry moats survived.