Every Lake
Illinois
Rivers on three sides, and a northern line moved up 41 miles so the state could have Chicago.
Illinois in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Illinois.
About Illinois
Illinois is drawn almost entirely by water: the Mississippi down the whole west side, the Ohio across the bottom, the Wabash up the southeast, and Lake Michigan at the top corner. Only the northern boundary is a surveyed straight line. The land is the flattest, blackest prairie in the country — leveled by the ice sheets and later tiled and drained into cropland — except in the far northwest Driftless corner the glaciers missed and the Shawnee Hills down south. One hundred two counties, small in the older south, large and square on the prairie.
Illinois entered on December 3, 1818 as the 21st state, after its delegate pushed the northern line 41 miles above the original Northwest Ordinance boundary to give the state a Lake Michigan port. That decision put Chicago in Illinois. Springfield became the capital in 1839, won for the city by a group of legislators that included Abraham Lincoln. The map's great road is Route 66, which began at Chicago and ran southwest through Bloomington, Springfield and St. Louis on its way to California.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 23 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
