| Illinois
. . .
The Illinois flag has a white
background, and the Illinois
state seal is in the center.
There is a bald eagle perched
on a rock holding a red, white,
and blue shield in its talons
. The shield has 13 stripes
and 13 stars, representing the
original 13 colonies of the
USA. The eagle is holding a
banner in its beak which reads
"STATE," "SOVEREIGNTY,"
"NATIONAL," and "UNION."
The word sovereignty is upside
down. The rock has the dates
1818 and 1868 written on it;
1818 refers to the year Illinois
became a state and 1868 refers
to the date the state seal was
redesigned
Illinois was the 21st state
in the USA and became a state
on December 3, 1818 .Illinois
is known as the Land of Lincoln
because Abraham Lincoln, the
16th U.S Pres was raised in
Illinois. The capital city is
Springfield and largest city
is Chicago. Illinois lies in
the mid-western heart of the
United States. Illinois is bordered
on the north by Wisconsin and
to the west the Mississippi
River flows which separates
it from Iowa and Missouri. To
the south lies Ohio River which
forms a boundary with Kentucky
and to the east is Indiana and
the Wabash River which forms
part of the boundary. At the
northern edge of the state is
Lake Michigan which stretches
63 miles.
The majority of Illinois consists
of gradually sloping hills,
prairies and shallow river valleys.
The fertile prairies are drained
by more than 275 rivers. Most
of them flow to the Mississippi-Ohio
system. The waterways are a
big part of a transportation
system along with the railroads
system and O’Hare airport,
which is the 2nd largest in
the nation.
Illinois is known as being a
a major trading, banking and
insurance center. The Board
of Trade in Chicago is the nation's
oldest and largest commodity
futures exchange. Chicago also
has the Chicago Midwest Stock
Exchange, the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange and a Federal Reserve
Bank.
Illinois has four distinct
seasons. Illinois has an state
average of 220 sunny days each
year and 50 foggy days. Summers
are usually warm, humid and
wet and winters are cold, windy
with snowfall. Average annual
snowfall varies from near 30
inches in Northern Illinois
to about 10 inches in Southern
Illinois. The wettest seasons
are typically spring and summer,
with about four inches of precipitation
Illinois has 102 Counties:
Adams
Alexander Bond Boone Brown Bureau
Calhoun Carroll Cass Champaign
Christian Clark Clay Clinton
Coles Cook Crawford Cumberland
DeKalb De Witt Douglas DuPage
Edgar Edwards Effingham Fayette
Ford Franklin Fulton Gallatin
Greene Grundy Hamilton Hancock
Hardin Henderson Henry Iroquois
Jackson Jasper Jefferson Jersey
Jo Daviess Johnson Kane Kankakee
Kendall Knox Lake La Salle Lawrence
Lee Livingston Logan McDonough
McHenry McLean Macon Macoupin
Madison Marion Marshall County
Mason Massac Menard Mercer Monroe
Montgomery Morgan Moultrie Ogle
Peoria Perry Piatt Pike Pope
Pulaski Putnam Randolph Richland
Rock Island St. Clair Saline
Sangamon Schuyler Scott Shelby
Stark
Stephenson Tazewell Union Vermilion
Wabash Warren Washington Wayne
White Whiteside Will Williamson
Winnebago Woodford
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state - Illinois