Illinois is a Midwestern State in the Great Lakes region, covering 55,696 square miles. The border with Canada runs through the Lakes. The Mississippi River forms the western border and Lake Michigan the far north-east.

With huge fertile plains, Illinois harvests massive maize and wheat crops, which are sent to the grain mills of Chicago. Not only a giant agriculturally, it is also one of the largest industrial States of North America with its own coal and oil.


Abraham Lincoln's Tomb

The State Capital is Springfield. The grave of Abraham Lincoln, born 1809, is in Springfield. He lived in the city for 25 years. Visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Lincoln Home National Historical site, which is a pedestrian only zone, and covers the four blocks surrounding the old home where Abraham and May Lincoln lived. Reconstruction has yielded restored timber houses, wooden sidewalks, original gaslights and a distinct ambience of having travelled back to the nineteenth century. There is a visitor centre on site.

South-west of Springfield at Cahokia Mounds State Historical Site is the remains of a Native American city dating from between 1050–1250. The region to the south is comprised of peaceful flat farmlands giving way to gently rolling hills and the forests along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.


Michigan Avenue Bridge, Chicago

175 miles north-east of Springfield lies The Windy City, cosmopolitan Chicago, the State’s largest city and indeed the third largest city in the country after New York and Los Angeles. Railways radiate like spokes of a wheel, going in every direction. Chicago is renowned for its transport, the railway system, from days gone by and its airport, nowadays, is one of the world’s most efficient and busiest. Chicago on the south-west edge of Lake Michigan was once a major Great Lakes port connected by a ship canal and the river Illinois to the Mississippi river and onwards.

With a population of some three million, Chicago is known as Millionaires’ City. 1886 saw riots and demands for a fairer more even share in the vast gains that the city was enjoying. In turn Union power bought in changes such as the eight-hour working day and stimulated a greater social awareness that set the scene for successful business management and the generation of even greater revenue.

In 1871 an uncontrollable blaze left the city in ruins, but from the tragedy a new city was built incorporating architectural innovations on a large scale. Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan designed the Sears Towers, then the world’s tallest skyscraper and no midget even by today’s standards, at 1454 foot. Visitors can take the elevator to the sky deck for both the ride and a taste of life at the top.


Sears Tower, Chicago

Other giant buildings worth visiting are the 100-storey John Hancock Centre and the Merchandise Mart. Marvel at the 12-storey Rookery redbrick building embellished with marble and gold by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Museum of Broadcast Communications explaining the history of broadcasting from early days to today’s hi-tech, with such memorabilia as the dog and horn symbol from His Master’s Voice records, is just one of the many museums worth visiting in the city.


Frank Lloyd Wright House, Oak Park

Magnificent Mile is the shopping district where the Gothic revival Water Tower and the Wrigley Building with its four-sided clock can be seen. Stop here for a drink and spare a thought for those years of Prohibition in the 1920s when gangsters Bugsy Malone and Al Capone ran the town’s illegal alcohol cartels.

Take in Newberry Library where the unusual contents representing research carried out on behalf of the Library for the Humanities are housed. There is a first edition of Milton’s Paradise Regained and pride of the collection is a 1481 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The Library itself is a beautiful example of the Romanesque style of architecture.

The Museum of Science and Industry covers specifically the history of space exploration, trains and the advances in genetics research, together with other innovations of a scientific nature belonging to the past hundred years.

Out of town, visit Oak Park, a former home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright. There is also a museum attributed to Ernest Hemingway in the house where he was born.

Getting there

Chicago O’Hare International (acclaimed to be the world’s busiest airport) is Illinois main airport. There are also several other airports serving Illinois.

For up to date visa requirements visit www.Projectvisa.com