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Kankakee River

Kankakee River

The Kankakee River is a tributary of the Illinois River, approximately 90 mi (144 km) long, in northwestern Indiana and northeastern Illinois in the United States. At one time the river drained one of the largest wetlands in North America and furnished a significant portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Significantly altered from its original channel, it flows through a primarily rural farming region of reclaimed cropland south of Lake Michigan.

Description

The Kankakee rises in northwestern Indiana, approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of South Bend. It flows in a straight channelized course generally southwestward through rural northwestern Indiana, collecting the Yellow River from the south in Starke County and passing the communities of South Center and English Lake. The river curves westward as it enters Kankakee County in northwestern Illinois. Approximately 3 mi (5 km) southeast of the city of Kankakee it receives the Iroquois River from the south and turns sharply to the northwest for its lower 35 mi (56 km). It joins the Des Plaines River from the south to form the Illinois, approximately 50 mi (80 km) southwest of Chicago.

History

Up through the early 19th century, the river furnished an important water transportation route through the Illinois Country for both Native Americans and early European settlers, notably French fur trappers. The headwaters of the river near present-day South Bend allowed a portage to the St. Joseph River, which drains into Lake Michigan, as well as furnishing a subsequent portage to the Lake Erie watershed. The Kankakee thus was part of an inland canoe route connecting the Great Lakes to Illinois River and subsequently to the Mississippi River. Until the end of the 19th century, the river was nearly 240 mi (384 km) long, flowing in highly meandering course through a vast complex of wetlands surrounding the river that were known as the "Great Kankakee Swamp." Encompassing 5,300 sq mi (14,000 km²), they were one of the largest marsh wetlands in the United States. Starting in the late 19th century much of the basin of wetlands was drained to create cultivated cropland. The upper river was also highly channelized with levees to allow easier transport of cut timber from the wetlands to saw mills downstream in Illinois. The channelization aided in the desiccation of the surrounding wetlands and reduced the river to less than half of its original length. Of the original swamp, only 30,000 acres (120 km²) remain, comprising approximately one percent of the original area. The channelization of the river has rendered it especially prone to flooding. Starting the 1980s, federal and state efforts have attempted to restore part of the original floodplain of the river through strategic widening of the levees. The river remains a popular destination for recreational canoeing and fishing for warm-water species. Kankakee River State Park is located along the river northwest of Kankakee, Illinois. The 4095-acre Kankakee Fish and Wildlife Area is located in Indiana.

External links

- [http://www.llbean.com/parksearch/parks/html/1250lls.htm Kankakee River State Park]
- [http://agen521.www.ecn.purdue.edu/AGEN521/epadir/wetlands/kankakee.html Purdue University: Kankakee River History]
- http://www.northernilanglersassoc.com/
- http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/publications/kank.htm
- http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/GrandKankakee/
- http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/Landmgt/PARKS/I&M/EAST/DESPLAIN/PARK.HTM
- http://www.kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org/
- http://www.bigeastern.com/kankakee/background.htm Category:Portages Category:Rivers of Illinois Category:Rivers of Indiana

Illinois River

This article is about the river in the U.S. state of Illinois. For other rivers with this name see Illinois River (disambiguation). Illinois River (disambiguation)] The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 273 miles (439 km) long, in the state of Illinois in the United States. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of 40,000 square miles (104,000 km²). The river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route connecting the Great Lakes with the Mississippi. The colonial settlements along the river formed the heart of the area known as the Illinois Country. After the construction of a canal in the 19th century, the river's role as link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi was extended into the era of modern industrial shipping.

Description

It is formed by the confluence of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers in western Grundy County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) southwest of Joliet. It flows west across northern Illinois, passing Morris and Ottawa, where it is joined by the Fox River. At La Salle it is joined by the Vermillion River, then flows west past Peru, and Spring Valley. In southeastern Bureau County it turns south, flowing southwest across western Illinois, past Lacon and downtown Peoria, the chief city on the river. South of Peoria it is joined by the Mackinaw River and then passes through the Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge. Opposite Havana it is joined by the Spoon River. Opposite Browning it is joined by the Sangamon River. It is joined by the La Moine River approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Beardstown. South of its confluence with the La Moine, it turns south, flowing roughly parallel with the Mississippi across southwestern Illinois. It is joined by the Macoupin Creek on the border between Greene and Jersey counties, approximately 15 mi (24 km) upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi. For the last 20 mi (32 km) of its course, it is separated from the Mississippi by only 5 mi (8 km). It joins the Mississippi near Grafton, approximately 25 mi (40 km) northwest of downtown St. Louis and approximately 20 mi (32 km) upstream from the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi.

History

South of Hennepin, the Illinois River is actually following the ancient channel of the Mississippi River. The Illinoian Glacier, about 100,000 years before present, blocked the Mississippi near Rock Island, diverting it into its present channel. After the glacier melted, the Illinois River flowed into the ancient channel. The Hennepin Canal roughly follows the ancient channel of the Mississippi upstream to Rock Island. The modern channel of the Illinois River was shaped in matter of days by the Kankakee Torrent. During the melting of the Wisconsin Glacier, about 10,000 years before present, a lake formed in Indiana, comparable to one of the modern Great Lakes. The lake formed behind the terminal morraine of a substage of that glacier. Melting ice to the north eventually raised the level of the lake so that it overtopped the morraine. The dam burst, and the entire volume of the lake was released in a very short time, perhaps a few days. Because of the manner of its formation, the Illinois River runs through a deep canyon with many rock formations. It is said to have a "underutilised channel", a channel that is far larger than would be needed to contain any conceivable flow in modern times. The Illinois River valley was one of the strongholds of the Illiniwek confederation of Native Americans. The French first met the natives here in 1673. The first European settlement in the state of Illinois was the Jesuit mission founded in 1675 by Father Jacques Marquette on the banks of the Illinois at Starved Rock. In 1680, Robert Cavelier de La Salle built the first fort in Illinois along the river at the present site of Peoria where the Jesuits later relocated.

Modern use

From 1905 to 1915, more freshwater fish were harvested from the Illinois than from any other river in the United States except for the Columbia River. The river was once a major source of mussels for the shell button industry. Overfishing, habitat loss and pollution have eliminated most commercial fishing except for a small mussel harvest to provide shells to seed pearl oysters overseas. The river is still an important sports fishing resource. The Illinois forms part of a modern waterway that connects the Great Lakes at Chicago, Illinois to the Mississippi River. The waterway was originally established by the building of the Illinois and Michigan Canal which connected the Illinois River to the Chicago River. When the Chicago River was later reversed, the pollution and sewage of the city of Chicago flowed down into the Illinois River. The Illinois and Michigan Canal has since been replaced by the Illinois Waterway including the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. The river is controlled by five lock and dams to facilitate river traffic. The waterway is heavily trafficked by barges transporting bulk goods such as grain and oil.

Cities and towns along the Illinois River

- Bath
- Beardstown
- Browning
- Chillicothe
- Creve Coeur
- East Peoria
- Florence
- Hardin
- Havana
- Hennepin
- Henry
- Kampsville
- Kingston Mines
- La Salle
- Lacon
- Liverpool
- Marseilles
- Meredosia
- Morris
- Naples
- Naplate
- Oglesby
- Ottawa
- Pekin
- Peoria
- Peoria Heights
- Peru
- Rome
- Seneca
- Spring Bay
- Spring Valley
- Valley City

References

"Geology Underfoot in Illinois", Raymond Wiggers, 1997

Indiana

:This article is about the U.S. state. See also Indiana, Pennsylvania (U.S.) and Indiana, São Paulo (Brazil.) Indiana, meaning the "Land of the Indians," is a state of the United States of America. Its capital is Indianapolis. The U.S. postal abbreviation for the state is IN. A resident of Indiana is called a Hoosier (which is also the name used for a student of Indiana University, Bloomington). The USS Indiana was named in honor of this state.

History

The area of Indiana has been settled since before the development of the Hopewell culture (ca. 100–400 CE). It was part of the Mississippian culture from roughly 1000CE up to the conventional end of Mississippian dating ("contact with Europeans"). The specific Native American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were primarily the Miami and the Shawnee. The area was claimed for New France in the 17th century, handed over to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the settlement at the end of the French and Indian War, given to the United States after the American Revolution, soon after which it became part of the Northwest Territory, then the Indiana Territory, and joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state.

Law and Government

The current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch." He was elected to office on November 2, 2004. The state's U.S. senators are B. Evans "Evan" Bayh III (Democrat) and Richard G. Lugar (Republican). Indiana is considered by many to be one of the more conservative states in the Midwest. Since it supported Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964, Indiana has not backed a single Democratic presidential candidate. However, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were Democrats. Former Governor and current U.S. Senator Evan Bayh is an all-but-announced canidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. His middle-of-the-road record and attention to constituencies has been well-received by Indiana voters. His father was a three-term Senator with a liberal record.

Geography

Evan Bayh Indiana is bounded on the north by Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan, on the east by Ohio, on the south by Kentucky with which it shares the Ohio River as a border, and on the west by Illinois. Indiana is one of the Great Lakes states. The 475 mile long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana two theme songs, the state song On the Banks of the Wabash as well as The Wabash Cannonball. The White River (a tributary of the Wabash, which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central Indiana. Indianapolis and Muncie are large cities on this river. Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located on the Ohio River, which forms all of the Indiana-Kentucky border. Northern Indiana is mostly farmland; however, the northwest corner of the state is part of the greater metropolitan area of Chicago and is therefore more densely populated. Gary, a city on Lake Michigan, is effectively a suburb of Chicago, even though it is in Indiana. The Kankakee River, which winds through Northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a demarcating line between rural and suburban northwest Indiana. Southern Indiana is a mixture of farmland and forest. The Hoosier National Forest is a 200,000 acre nature preserve near Bedford. Southern Indiana generally contains more hills and geographic variation than the northern portion.

Economy

Hoosier National Forest The total gross state product in 2003 was $214 billion. Indiana's per capita income, as of 2003, was $28,783. Indiana is located well within the Corn Belt, and the state's agricultural methods and principal farm outputs reflect this: a feedlot-style system raising corn, to fatten hogs and cattle. Soybeans are also a major cash crop. The state's nearness to large urban centers, such as Chicago, Illinois, also assures that much dairying, egg production, and specialty horticulture occur. Specialty crops include melons (southern Wabash Valley), tomatoes (concentrated in central Indiana), grapes, and mint (Source: USDA crop profiles). In addition, Indiana is a significant producer of tobacco. It should be remembered that most of the original land was not prairie and had to be cleared of deciduous trees. Many isolated parcels of woodland remain, and much of the southern, hilly portion is heavily forested (a condition which supports a local furniture-making sector in that part of the state). A high percentage of Indiana's GDP comes from manufacturing. The Calumet region of northwest Indiana is the largest steel producing area in the USA, and this activity also requires that very large amounts of electric power be generated. Indiana's other manufactures include automobiles, electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical products, rubber, petroleum and coal products, and factory machinery. In addition, Indiana has the international headquarters of pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly as well as the headquarters of Mead Johnson Nutritionals, a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Bristol-Myers Squibb Despite it's reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been much less hit by declines in traditional Rust Belt manufactures than many of its neighbors. The explanation appears to be certain factors in the labor market. First, much of the heavy manufacturing, such as industrial machinery and steel, requires highly skilled labor, and firms are often willing to locate where hard-to-train skills already exist. Second, Indiana's labor force is located primarily in medium-sized and smaller cities rather than in very large and expensive metropolises. This makes it possible for firms to offer, and labor accept, somewhat lower wages for these skills than would normally be paid. In other words, firms often see in Indiana a chance to obtain higher than average skills at lower than average wages for those skills, which often makes location in the state desirable. (Source for basic manufacturing facts in the above two paragraphs is generally McCoy and McNamara, "Manufacturers in Indiana," Purdue University Center for Rural Development, Research Paper 19, July 1998.) In mining Indiana is probably best known for its decorative limestone from the southern, hilly portion of the state, especially from around Bedford (the home area of Apollo I astronaut Gus Grissom). One of the many public buildings faced with this stone is The Pentagon, and after the attack of September 11, 2001, a special effort was made by the mining industry of Indiana to replace those damaged walls with as nearly identical type and cut of material as the original facing. There are also large coal mines in the southern portion of the state. Like most Great Lakes states Indiana has small to medium operating petroleum fields; the principal location of these today is in extreme southwest. Indiana's economy is considered to be one of the most business-friendly states in the U.S. This is due in part to it's conservative business climate, low business taxes, and many labor laws that have remained unchanged since the 1800s, emphasizing the supremacy of employer/management. The doctrine of at-will employment, where an employer can terminate an employee for any or no reason, is firmly ensconced in Indiana. Unions in Indiana are among the weakest in the U.S. and it is difficult for unions to organize. It has been said that Indiana is a post-industrial state with a pre-Industrial Revolution mindset regarding the rights of workers. With isolated exceptions in university areas such as Bloomington and Lafayette, technology has been slow to catch on in Indiana, in part to Hoosiers' traditional, well-known resistance to change. Most political leaders at the state level continue to emphasize the state's past economic base of manufacturing and farming.

Demographics

As of 2004, the population of Indiana was estimated to be 6,237,569. This includes about 229,000 foreign-born (3.7%). Racially, the state is:
- 85.8% White
- 8.4% Black
- 3.5% Hispanic
- 1% Asian
- 0.3% Native American
- 1.2% Mixed race The five largest ancestries in the state are: German (22.7%), American (12%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.9%), African American (8.4%). German is the largest ancestry reported in Indiana, with almost one-in-four whites reporting German ancestry in the Census. Persons of American and British ancestry are also present throughout the state, especially in the southern and central parts of the state. Gary and the surrounding Chicago suburbs, along with the city of Indianapolis, have large black populations. South Bend has a large Polish population and there are a sizeable number of people with Belgian ancestry in Mishawaka. Dyngus Day, the Polish celebration of the end of Lent, takes place on the Monday after Easter and is widely celebrated in South Bend. A large Hispanic/Latino population has swelled in Elkhart County, particularly the north side of the city of Goshen. This formerly German- and Dutch-dominated area now has a high concentration of Hispanic (particularly Mexican)-oriented businesses and many official signs in the area are bilingual. Population growth since 1990 has been extremely concentrated in the counties surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the top five fastest-growing counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, and Hancock. The other county is Dearborn County, which is near Cincinnati. Meanwhile, population decline has primarily been in a series of counties that geographically form a line between Logansport and Richmond. Most of these counties were at the heart of the Gas Belt. There were also three counties along the Wabash River and the Ohio River that experienced decline, these were Vigo, Knox, and Perry.

Religion

Religiously, Indiana is predominantly Protestant, although there is also a significant Roman Catholic population. The Catholic presence is perhaps better known than its size would imply due to the existence of the University of Notre Dame. Indiana is home to a moderate proportion of Mennonite and Amish Christians, particularly in Elkhart and LaGrange Counties in the north, and Parke County in the west, and the state has the nation's largest population of members of the Protestant "Churches of Christ" denomination. The current religious affiliations of the people of Indiana are shown below:
- Christian – 82%
- Protestant – 62%
- Baptist – 15%
- Methodist – 10%
- Lutheran – 6%
- Church of Christ – 5%
- Pentecostal – 3%
- Mennonite/Pietist – 1%
- Other Protestant – 23%
- Roman Catholic – 19%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 1%
- Non-Religious – 17%

Important Cities and Towns

Education

Colleges and Universities

Professional Sports Teams

Time Zones

Roman Catholic Most of Indiana has historically exempted itself from the observation of daylight saving time (DST). Some counties within this area, particularly Floyd, Clark, and Harrison counties near Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio and Dearborn counties near Cincinnati, Ohio, observe daylight saving time unofficially and illegally by local custom. In addition, Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton, and Jasper counties in the nortwest and Gibson, Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, and Spencer counties in the southwest are in the Central time zone and remain subject to daylight saving time. The history of this unique arrangement is fairly convoluted. From 1918 until 1961, at which time authority under the various Standard Time Acts was in the Interstate Commerce Commission, the dividing line between Eastern and Central Standard Time was approximately the eastern boundary line of the State of Indiana. In 1961 after hearings, the Interstate Commerce Commission adjusted the boundary line between Eastern and Central so that the line essentially split Indiana down the middle. In 1967, the Governor of Indiana petitioned the United States Department of Transportation to have the entire state of Indiana placed on Central Time. Instead, the time line was fixed in a position where all but 10 counties in western Indiana were placed in the Eastern Time Zone, but dispensation was given to allow a state to exempt an entire time zone bloc within the state from observance of Daylight Saving Time. Technically, during the summer months, this meant most of Indiana was on Eastern Standard Time, but functionally most of the state was on Central Daylight Time. Due to this confusion, the state passed a bill in 2005 whereby the entire state is to begin observing daylight saving time starting in April 2006. Counties would remain under their current time zones, but the bill also asks the federal Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over time zones, to reconsider whether more counties should switch to the Central zone. The counties that petitioned for Central Time were St. Joseph, Starke, Marshall, Pulaski, Fulton, White, Cass, Benton and Carroll in the northern part of the state; Fountain and Vermillion counties in the central part of the state; and Sullivan, Knox, Daviess, Martin, Lawrence, Pike, Dubois, and Perry counties in the southern part of the state. As of October 25, 2005, the USDOT had tentatively proposed that only St. Joseph, Starke, Knox, Pike, and Perry Counties move from the Eastern to the Central time zone. [http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=360876&docketid=22114]

Miscellaneous Information

- State bird: Cardinal
- State flower: Peony
- State motto: "Crossroads of America."
- State poem: [http://www.in.gov/sic/about/emblems/state_poem.html Indiana], by Arthur Franklin Mapes
- State song: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away
- State river: Wabash
- State stone: Salem limestone
- State tree: Tulip tree Indiana is the home state of a large number of astronauts, including such notables as "Gus" Grissom and Frank Borman. Many other astronauts, including Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, were graduates of Purdue University in West Lafayette ([http://www2.indystar.com/library/factfiles/history/space_program/hoosier_astronauts.html]). Neil Armstrong's Purdue class ring may be the only such object that has ever traveled to the moon and back.

Natural Resources

There are 24 Indiana state parks, nine man-made reservoirs, and hundreds of lakes in the state.

External Links

- [http://www.in.gov Indiana government home page] :
- [http://www.statelib.lib.in.us/www/ihb/emblems/index.html Indiana state emblems]
- [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/18000.html U.S. Census Bureau]
- [http://www.usnewspapers.org/state/indiana Indiana Newspapers]
- Category:States of the United States ko:인디애나 주 ja:インディアナ州 simple:Indiana th:มลรัฐอินดีแอนา

Illinois

Illinois (pronounced or "ill-i-NOY") was the 21st state to join the United States, located in the former Northwest Territory. Its name was given by the state's French explorers after the indigenous Illiniwek people, a consortium of Algonquin tribes that thrived in the area. The word Illiniwek means simply "the people." The capital of Illinois is Springfield, while its largest city is Chicago. The U.S. postal abbreviation for the state is IL. The USS Illinois was named in honor of this state.

History

Pre-Columbian

Cahokia, the urban center of the pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois. That civilization vanished circa 1400–1500 for unknown reasons. The next major power in the region was the Illiniwek Confederation, a political alliance among several tribes. The Illiniwek gave Illinois its name. The Illini suffered in the seventeenth century as Iroquois expansion forced them to compete with several tribes for land. The Illini were replaced in Illinois by the Potawatomi, Miami, Sauk, and other tribes.

European exploration

French explorers Jacques Marquette, S.J., and Louis Joliet explored the Illinois River in 1673. As a result of their exploration, Illinois was part of the French empire until 1763, when it passed to the British. George Rogers Clark claimed the Illinois Country for the Commonwealth of Virginia during his military campaigns there in 1778. The area was ceded to the new United States in 1783 and became part of the Northwest Territory.

The 1800s

The Illinois-Wabash Company was an early claimant to much of Illinois. The Illinois Territory was created on February 3, 1809. In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. Early U.S. settlement began in the south part of the state and quickly spread northward, driving out the native residents. With the 1832 Black Hawk War, the last native tribes were driven out of northern Illinois. The winter of 1830-1831 is called the "Winter of the Deep Snow". A sudden, deep snowfall blanketed the State, making travel impossible for the rest of the winter. Travelers lucky enough to find shelter had to stay where they were. Many others perished. Several severe winters followed, including the "Winter of the Sudden Freeze". On December 20, 1836, a fast-moving cold front passed through, freezing puddles in minutes, killing many travelers who could not reach shelter. The adverse weather resulted in crop failures in the northern part of the State. The resulting exodus toward the southern part of the State contributed to its name: "Egypt". As early as 1840, Illinois was called the "Sucker State". There are at least three stories behind this name. The first is that, because much of the early population of the State bought land, site unseen, from East Coast land speculators, the population was a bunch of "suckers". One problem with this version is whether the term "sucker" had this meaning as early as 1840. The second story is that, in order to survive on the prairie, early settlers had to obtain water by sucking it through a hollow reed out of a crawdad hole. This also seems unlikely. For one thing, there is no documentation that people actually engaged in this disgusting practice. The early settlers avoided the prairie, and settled along creeks. Moreover, water was plentiful on the Prairie. A third version of the "Sucker Story" is that some of the earliest American settlers worked the mines in Galena, Illinois, on the Mississippi River, in the far northwest corner of the State. At first mining was a seasonal occupation, the miners traveling north on the River in the Spring, and returning in the Fall. The migration of the miners corresponded with the seasonal migration of "suckers", a type of fish. The problem with this version is that the fish today known as a "sucker" does not make this migration. Furthermore, nobody has identified any other fish that made such a migration. Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln" because it is here that the 16th President spent most of his life, practicing law and living in Springfield. Chicago gained prominence as a canal port after 1848, and as a rail hub soon afterward. By 1857, Chicago was Illinois' largest city.

The Civil War

During the Civil War, over 250,000 Illinois men served in the Union Army, more than any other northern state except New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Beginning with President Lincoln's first call for troops and continuing throughout the war, Illinois mustered 150 infantry regiments, which were numbered from the 7th IL to the 156th IL. Seventeen cavalry regiments were also gathered, as well as two light artillery regiments.

Government

1848 introduced in 2001.]] The state government of Illinois is modeled after the federal government with adaptations originating from traditions cultivated during the state's frontier era. As codified in the state constitution, there are three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. The executive branch is led by the Governor of Illinois. Legislative functions are given to the Illinois General Assembly, composed of the 118-member Illinois State House of Representatives and the 59-member Illinois State Senate. The judiciary is comprised of the state supreme court, which oversees the lower appellate courts and circuit courts.
- The Governor of Illinois is Rod Blagojevich (Democrat)
- The Lieutenant Governor of Illinois is Pat Quinn (Democrat)
- The Attorney General of Illinois is Lisa Madigan (Democrat)
- The Secretary of State of Illinois is Jesse White (Democrat)
- The Comptroller of Illinois is Daniel Hynes (Democrat)
- The Treasurer of Illinois is Judy Baar Topinka (Republican)
- The Senior United States Senator is Richard J. Durbin (Democrat)
- The Junior United States Senator is Barack Obama (Democrat) As the birthplace of the Republican Party, the GOP was long dominant in Illinois. This has changed and the state has supported Democratic presidential candidates in the last four elections. John Kerry easily won the state's 21 electoral votes in 2004 by a margin of 11 percentage points with 54.8% of the vote. It is the most liberal of the Midwestern states. Traditionally Chicago, East Saint Louis, and the Quad Cities tend to vote heavily Democratic, along with the Central Illinois population centers of Peoria, Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and Decatur. Rural districts tend to vote more heavily Republican, but some, particularly in the southern part of the state, have voted Democratic as well. It should also be noted that the suburban areas surrounding Chicago vote heavily Republican, although this trend has started to go the other direction in the past 10 years.

Geography

Illinois is in the north-central U.S. and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Wisconsin to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Indiana to the east. Illinois also borders Michigan, but only via a water boundary in Lake Michigan. Illinois has three major geographical divisions. The first is Chicagoland, including the city of Chicago, its suburbs, and the adjoining exurban area into which the metropolis is expanding. This region includes a few counties in Indiana and Wisconsin and stretches across much of northern Illinois toward the Iowa border, generally along Interstates 80 and 90. This region is cosmopolitan, densely populated, industrialized, and settled by a variety of ethnic groups. Southward and westward, the second major division is central Illinois, an area of mostly flat prairie. Known as the Land of Lincoln or the Heart of Illinois, it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. Agriculture, particularly corn and soybeans, figures prominently. Major cities include famously average Peoria, Springfield (the state capital), and Champaign-Urbana (home of the University of Illinois). The third division is southern Illinois, comprising the area south of U.S. Route 50, and including Egypt (sometimes erroneously called Little Egypt), near the juncture of the Mississippi River and Ohio River. This region can be distinguished from the other two by its warmer climate, different mix of crops (including some cotton farming in the past), more rugged topography (unglaciated and older, Illinoian Age, glaciated), as well as small-scale oil deposits and coal mining. The area is a little more populated than the central part of the state with the population centered in two areas: the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area (the Illinois suburbs of St. Louis are known as "The Metro-East") and the Carbondale, Marion, West Frankfort, Herrin, Murphysboro, Carterville, Johnston City area which is home to a little over 180,000 residents. Collectively, all of Illinois outside the Chicago Metropolitan area is called "downstate Illinois" (even though a portion is slighter north of Chicago) McLean County is the largest county in terms of land area, at 1,184 sq mi., while Cook County is the largest county in terms of population, at 5,327,777 (both figures are as of 2004). In extreme northwestern Illinois the Driftless Zone, a region of unglaciated and therefore higher and more rugged topography, occupies a small part of the state. Charles Mound, located in this region, is the state's highest elevation above sea level. The floodplain on the Mississippi River from Alton to the Kaskaskia River is the American Bottom, and is the site of the ancient city of Cahokia, and was a region of early French settlement, as well as the site of the first state capital, at Kaskaskia.

Economy

Kaskaskia The 2004 total gross state product for Illinois was $528 billion, placing it 5^th in the nation. The 2003 per capita income was $32,965. Illinois' agricultural outputs are corn, soybeans, hogs, cattle, dairy products, and wheat. Its industrial outputs are machinery, food processing, electrical equipment, chemical products, publishing, fabricated metal products, transportation equipment, petroleum and coal.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2004 the population of Illinois was 12,713,634. This includes 1,682,900 foreign-born (13.3%). At the northern edge of the state on Lake Michigan lies Chicago, the nation's third largest city. In 2000, 23.3% of the population lived in the city of Chicago, 43.3% in Cook County and 65.6% in Illinois's part of Chicagoland, the leading industrial and transportation center in the region, which includes Will, DuPage, and Lake Counties as well as Cook County. The rest of the population lives in the smaller cities and in the rural areas that dot the state's plains. The racial makeup of the state is as follows:
- 67.8% White
- 15.1% Black
- 12.3% Hispanic
- 3.4% Asian
- 0.2% Native American
- 1.9% Mixed Race The top five ancestry groups in Illinois are: German (19.6%), African American (15.1%), Irish (12.2%), Mexican (9.2%), Polish (7.5%), and Filipino (1.2%) . Nearly three in ten whites in Illinois claimed at least partial German ancestry on the Census, making the Germans the largest ancestry group in the state. Blacks are present in large numbers in the city of Chicago, East St. Louis, and the southern tip of the state. Residents of American and British ancestry are especially concentrated in the southeastern part of the state. Metropolitan Chicago has the greatest numbers of people of Irish, Mexican, and Polish ancestry. 7.1% of Illinois' population were reported as under 5, 26.1% under 18, and 12.1% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51% of the population.

Religion

Protestants are the largest religious group in Illinois, however unlike the other Midwestern states, Illinois is not overwhelmingly Protestant (less than half of the people identify themselves as Protestants). Roman Catholics, who are heavily concentrated in and around Chicago, account for 30% of the population. The religious affiliations of the people of Illinois are:
- Christian – 80%
- Protestant – 49%
- Baptist – 12%
- Lutheran – 7%
- Methodist – 7%
- Presbyterian – 3%
- Other Protestant or general Protestant – 20%
- Roman Catholic – 30%
- Other Christian – 1%
- Other Religions – 4%
- Non-Religious – 16%

Important cities and towns

Roman Catholic Roman Catholic

Counties of Illinois

Education

Illinois State Board of Education

The Illinois State Board of Education or ISBE, autonomous of the governor and the state legislature, administers public education in the state. Local municipalities and their respective school districts operate individual public schools but the ISBE audits performance of public schools with an annual school report card. The ISBE also makes recommendations to state leaders concerning education spending and policies. There is current debate as to the role of the ISBE and whether or not its autonomous relationship with the governor and the state legislature is appropriate. In 2002, the Office of the Governor proposed the creation of a monolithic statewide department of education to replace the ISBE. However, direct control of the new department would fall under the state governor's jurisdiction. The structure would mimic the system employed by the Hawaii State Department of Education, which has no local school districts. Opponents to the proposal argue that local communities would lose control over what their children would learn in public schools and the means by which those public schools operate.

Primary and secondary schools

Education is compulsory from kindergarten through the twelfth grade in Illinois, commonly but not exclusively divided into three tiers of primary and secondary education: elementary school, middle school or junior high school and high school. District territories are often complex in structure. In some cases, elementary, middle and junior high schools of a single district feed into high schools in another district.

Colleges and universities

While many students enter the military or join the workforce directly from high school, students have the option of applying to colleges and universities in Illinois. Notable Illinois institutions of higher education include Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Chicago and the several branches of the University of Illinois. Illinois is also home to 49 colleges in the Illinois community college system.

List of colleges and universities

Professional sports teams

Favorite sons

- Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President, is buried in Springfield, Illinois
- Adlai Stevenson II, governor, Presidential candidate, United Nations ambassador, is buried in Bloomington, Illinois
- Ronald Reagan, the 40th President, was born in Tampico, Illinois.

Rogues gallery

- William Stratton, Governor, charged with tax evasion, acquitted
- Orville Hodge, State Auditor, imprisoned for embezzlement
- Otto Kerner, Governor, federal judge, imprisoned for bribery.
- Paul Powell, Secretary of State, died with shoeboxes full of money (but never indicted)
- Daniel Walker, Governor, imprisoned for financial fraud
- Dan Rostenkowski, U.S. Congressman, imprisoned for mail fraud
- George Ryan, Secretary of State, Governor, on trial (2005) for corruption

State symbols

George Ryan
- State animal: White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
- State bird: Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
- State capital: Springfield
- State dance: Square dance
- State fish: Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus)
- State flower: Purple violet (Viola sororia)
- State fossil: Tully Monster (Tullimonstrum gregarium)
- State insect: Monarch butterfly
- State mineral: Fluorite
- State motto: "State sovereignty, national union"
- State prairie grass: Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)
- State slogan: "Land of Lincoln"
- State snack: Popcorn
- State soil: Drummer Silty Clay Loam
- State song: "Illinois"
- State tree: White oak (Quercus alba)

External links

- [http://www.illinois.gov State of Illinois Web Site] :
- [http://www.illinois.gov/facts/symbols.cfm Illinois State Symbols]
- [http://www.HavenWorks.com/illinois Illinois News]
- [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17000.html U.S. Census Bureau]
- [http://www.illinoisdata.com/index.htm Illinois Data ]
- [http://www.genealogybuff.com/il/ GenealogyBuff.com - Illinois Library Data Files]
- [http://obit.obitlinkspage.com/il.htm Illinois Obituary Links]
- [http://www.usnewspapers.org/state/illinois Illinois Newspapers]
- [http://dir.webring.com/rw?d=Regional/U_S__States/Illinois Category at Webring]
- [http://www.countymapsofillinois.com/ County Maps of Illinois] Full color maps. List of cities, towns and county seats
- [http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilcumber/ilctybnd/index.htm/ Illinois County Boundaries 1790 to Present]

Scholarly Secondary Sources

- Adams, Jane. The Transformation of Rural Life: Southern Illinois, 1890-1990 (1994) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=94852725 online at Questia]
- Biles, Roger. Illinois: A History Of The Land And Its People (2005).
- Buck, Solon J. Illinois in 1818 (1917)
- Cole, Arthur Charles. The Era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 (1919)
- Davis, James E. Frontier Illinois (1998).
- Gove, Samuel K. and James D. Nowlan. Illinois Politics & Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier (1996) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=79398589 online at Questia]
- Hallwas, John E. ed., Illinois Literature: The Nineteenth Century (1986)
- Hicken, Victor. Illinois in the Civil War (1966).
- Hoffmann, John. A Guide to the History of Illinois. (1991), highly detailed annotated bibliography. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=71151873 online at Questia]
- Horsley, A. Doyne. Illinois: A Geography (1986)
- Howard, Robert P. Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (1972).
- Jensen, Richard. Illinois: A History (2001).
- Keiser, John H. Building for the Centuries: Illinois 1865-1898 (1977)
- Meyer, Douglas K. Making the Heartland Quilt: A Geographical History of Settlement and Migration in Early-Nineteenth-Century Illinois (2000) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=65659204 online at Questia]
- Pease, Theodore Calvin. The Frontier State, 1818-1848 (1918).
- Peck, J. M. A Gazetteer of Illinois (1837), [http://history.alliancelibrarysystem.com/IllinoisAlive/files/bp/htm7/bp000182.cfm a primary source online]
- Sutton, Robert P. ed. The Prairie State: A Documentary History of Illinois (1977).
- WPA. Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide (1939) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59301214 online at Questia]

Popular Accounts

Tails and Trails of Illinois, Stu Fliege, University of Illinois Press, 2002.
- Category:States of the United States ko:일리노이 주 ja:イリノイ州 th:มลรัฐอิลลินอยส์

Wetlands

, with an endangered American Crocodile.]] In physical geography, a wetland is an environment "at the interface between truly terrestrial ecosystems...and truly aquatic systems...making them different from each yet highly dependent on both" (Mitsch & Gosselink, 1986). In essence, wetlands are ecotones.

Characteristics

Wetlands are found under a wide range of hydrological conditions, but at least some of the time water saturates the soil. The result is a hydric soil, one characterized by an absence of free oxygen some or all of the time, and therefore called a "reducing environment." Plants (called hydrophytes or just wetland plants) specifically adapted to the reducing conditions presented by such soils can survive in wetlands, whereas species intolerant of the absence of soil oxygen (called "upland" plants) can not survive. Adaptations to low soil oxygen characterize many wetland species. Intertidal wetlands are found in coastal areas of tropical regions where air temperature, wave action, salinity levels, and sediment movements are moderated by the locational features of the estuarine environment.

Wetland types

- bog or moor or muskeg (peatlands)
- mangrove swamp or mangal
- marsh
- fen
- carr
- swamp
- bayou or slough
- constructed wetland

Wetland functions

By absorbing the force of strong winds and tides, wetlands protect terrestrial areas adjoining them from storms, floods, and tidal damage. The plants in wetlands help to filter pollutants in the water. Fresh water marshes are often on river floodplains. Intertidal wetlands provide an excellent example of invasion, modification and succession. The invasion and succession process is establishment of seagrasses. These help stabilize sediment and increase sediment capture rates. The trapped sediment gradually develops into mud flats. Mud flat organisms become established encouraging other life forms changing the organic composition of the soils. The mangroves establish themselves in the shallower water upslope from the mudflats. Mangroves further stabilize sediment and over time increase the soil level. This results in less tidal movement and the development of salt marshes. (succession) The salty nature of the soil means it can only be tolerated by special types of grasses e.g. saltbush, rush and sedge. There is also changing species diversity in each succession. In the salt marshes there is greater species diversity, nutrient recycling, and niche specialisation making it one of the most productive ecosystems on Earth. floodplain.]]

Adjustments to natural stress

In intertidal wetlands the majority of natural stress comes from salinity and tidal movements. The intertidal wetlands must be able to survive extreme conditions of mainly salt water at high tide, fresh water at low tide and times of flood and brackish water at other times. The saline water is a very difficult condition for plants to survive in. The grey mangrove accomplishes this by excluding salt in the root system, salt glands in the leaf, and waxy leaves to minimize water loss. However it is vulnerable to changes in salinity levels. Changes to tidal movements through increased run-off or altered drainage can cause the roots of mangroves to be inundated for longer than normal periods affecting their pneumatophones. It can also be pushed past its threshold level if water quality is changed. Thus even healthy ecosystems are vulnerable to change. Some species such as oysters and molluscs have been used as indicator species, with any decline in their numbers indicating the ecosystem is under stress. A decline in nutrient levels will also affect primary productivity and thus bring about change. Wetlands are often filled in to be used by humans for everything from agriculture to parking lots, in part because the economic value of wetlands has only been recognised recently: the shrimp and fish that breed in salt water marshes are generally harvested in deeper water, for example. Humans can maximize the area of healthy, functioning intertidal wetlands by minimising their impacts and by developing management strategies that protect, and where possible rehabilitate those ecosystems at risk.

Protecting or rehabilitating intertidal wetlands

fish Historically, humans have made large-scale efforts to drain wetlands for development or flood them for use as recreational lakes. Since the 1970s, more focus has been put on preserving wetlands for their natural function—sometimes also at great expense. One example is the project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to control flooding and enhance development by taming the Everglades, a project which has now been reversed to restore much of the wetlands as a natural habitat and method of flood control. # Exclusion—Those responsible for the management of wetland areas often facilitate public access to a small, designated area while restricting access to other areas. Provision of defined boardwalks and walkways is a management strategy used to restrict access to vulnerable areas, as is the issuing of permits whilst visiting. # Education—In the past, wetlands were regarded as wastelands. Education campaigns have helped to change public perceptions and foster public support for the wetlands. Due to their location in the catchment area, education programs need to teach about total catchment management programs. Educational programs include guided tours for the general public, school visits, media liaison, information centres, conference presentations, interpretive signage, publications and facts sheets. Staff should also include education officers. # Action—Too little is known about the intertidal wetland system to successfully reinstate all natural conditions. Management plans focus on the rehabilitation of the site and the removal of human-induced stresses. For example, fox baiting, removal of weeds. # Design—Design interventions have proved successful in minimising sources of natural stress. # Legislation—Legislation and regulations are used to protect wetlands, in particular the Ramsar convention.

Negative human impacts

# Changed wind patterns due to high-rise near some wetland areas. For example, Bicentennial Park. # Alteration of water flows through construction of roads. For example, Towra Point. # Removal—For urban and industrial land uses. These also increase turbidity and toxins in the water supplied to mangroves. (The removal can also result in changed energy flows and nutrient cycles, affecting food chains for both sedentary and migratory fauna.) # Replacement of wetland areas for parks, playing fields or pasture. # Destruction of sea grasses in areas adjoining wetlands can affect energy flows and nutrient cycles as species levels will be affected. # Introduction of exotic species. For example, foxes, rabbits, sheep, cattle, pigs, which change energy flows and nutrient cycles. Birds are particularly affected. For example, Little Tern. # Indirect influences from adjacent sites. For example, weed infestation (lantana, Towra Point), carried into the wetlands by horses from the nearby stables. # Trampling from illegal access. # Threat of oil spills. For example, Kurnell refinery on Towra Point. Wetlands support a wide variety of wildlife (bird, plants, fish, mammals etc) and therefore the conservation of wetlands is of prime importance for the preservation of many species of wildlife. In 1962, the idea of wetlands conservation was born with a "List of Wetlands of International Importance". This was followed up in 1971 by the Ramsar Convention when conservationists from 23 countries met in the city of Ramsar, Iran on the shores of the Caspian Sea. There are now over 1,200 wetlands on the Ramsar List.

References

- Mitsch, William J., and James G. Gosselink. 1986. Wetlands, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. 539 pp.
- Campbell, Craig S., and Michael Ogden. 1999. Constructed Wetlands In The Sustainable Landscape. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 270 pp.

External links

- [http://water.usgs.gov/nwsum/WSP2425/history.html United States Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 2425: History of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States]
- [http://www.evergladesplan.org/facts_info/learning.cfm History of Everglades projects]
- [http://www.sankey.ws/leitrim.html the Leitrim wetland (Canada)] Category:Landforms - ja:湿原

Portage

Portage refers to the practice of carrying a canoe or other boat over land to avoid an obstacle on the water route (such as rapids in a river), or between two water routes. Places where this carrying occurs are also called portage. Over time, depending on the importance of the portages, they were sometimes upgraded to canals with locks, and even portage railways. Portaging generally required unloading the vessel and carrying vessel and contents across the portage in multiple trips. Voyageurs would often employ a tump line on their forehead to carry a load armfree on their back. Small canoes can be portaged by carrying them inverted over one's shoulders and the center brace may be designed in the style of a yoke to facilitate this. Places where portaging occurred often became temporary and then permanent settlements and the settlements sometimes were named for being on a portage, particularly in North America. Some places so named are:
- Cranberry Portage, Manitoba
- Grand Portage, Minnesota
- See Portage (disambiguation) for numerous places named simply "Portage". There is also the settlement of Volokolamsk in Russia, whose name is derived from "portage" on Lama River.

Great Lakes (North America)

The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes on or near the United States-Canadian border. They are the largest group of fresh water lakes on the earth and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system is the largest fresh-water system in the world. They are sometimes referred to as inland seas.

Lakes

inland sea The Great Lakes are (west to east, general direction of water flow):
- Lake Superior (the largest and deepest, larger than the Czech Republic)
- Lake Michigan (the only one entirely in the U.S., the second largest in volume)
- Lake Huron (the second largest in area)
- Lake Erie (the smallest in volume and shallowest)
- Lake Ontario (the smallest in area, much lower altitude than the rest) A commonly used mnemonic for remembering the names of the lakes is HOMES, for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior, although this mnemonic puts the lakes in no particular order. Alternative mnemonics such as Sister Mary Hates Ecumenical Overtures or She Made Harry Eat Onions place them in west-east order. Lakes Michigan and Huron, being hydrologically intertwined, are sometimes considered to be one entity: Lake Michigan-Huron. Considered together, Michigan-Huron would be larger in surface area than Lake Superior, but smaller in total water volume. Lake Michigan-Huron A much smaller sixth lake, Lake St. Clair, is part of the Great Lakes system between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, but is not considered one of the "Great Lakes". The system also includes the rivers that connect the lakes: St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the St. Clair River between Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, and the Niagara River and Niagara Falls, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. (Lake Michigan is connected to Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac.) Large islands and a peninsula divide Lake Huron into the lake proper and Georgian Bay. The lakes are bounded by Ontario (all of the lakes but Michigan), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (all but Ontario), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Four of the five lakes straddle the U.S.-Canada border; the fifth, Lake Michigan, is entirely within the United States. The Saint Lawrence River, which marks the same international border for a portion of its course, is a primary outlet of these interconnected lakes, and flows through Quebec and past the Gaspé Peninsula to the northern Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic Ocean Sprinkled throughout the lakes are the approximately 35,000 Great Lakes islands, including Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water, and Isle Royale in Lake Superior, the largest island in the largest lake (each island large enough to itself contain multiple lakes). The Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going vessels. However the move to wider ocean-going container ships - which do not fit through the locks on these routes - has limited shipping on the lakes. Despite their vast size, large sections of the Great Lakes freeze over in winter, and most shipping stops during that season. There are some icebreakers that operate on the lakes. The lakes have an effect on weather in the region, known as lake effect. In winter, the moisture picked up by the prevailing winds from the west can produce very heavy snowfall, especially along lakeshores to the east such as in Michigan, Ontario, and New York. The most infamous example is the Blizzard of '77 in which previous heavy snowfall and strong winds running the length of Lake Erie covered Buffalo, New York in drifting snow. The lakes also moderate seasonal temperatures somewhat, by absorbing heat and cooling the air in summer, then slowly radiating that heat in autumn. This temperature buffering produces areas known as "fruit belts", where fruit typically grown farther south can be produced in commercial quantities.

Geologic pre-history

Image:Great Lakes Lake Superior.png|Lake Superior Image:Great Lakes Lake Michigan.png|Lake Michigan Image:Great Lakes Lake Ontario.png|Lake Ontario Image:Great Lakes Lake Huron.png|Lake Huron Image:Great Lakes Lake Erie.png|Lake Erie The Great Lakes were formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, when the Laurentide ice sheet receded. When this happened, large glaciers left behind a large amount of meltwater (see Lake Agassiz) which filled up these holes, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today. Because of the uneven nature of glacier erosion, some higher hills became Great Lakes islands. The Niagara Escarpment follows the contour of the Great Lakes between New York and Wisconsin -- Herbert Simon called this escarpment the spinal cord of my native land.

Economy of the Great Lakes

The lakes are extensively used for transport, though cargo traffic has decreased considerably in recent years. The Great Lakes Waterway makes each of the lakes accessible. During settlement, the Great Lakes and its rivers were the only practical means of moving people and freight. Anything and everything floated on the lakes. Some ended up on the bottom due to storms, fires, collisions and underwater hazards. (See Edmund Fitzgerald and Le Griffon.) Barges from middle North America were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean from the Great Lakes when the Erie Canal opened in 1825. By 1848, with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Chicago, direct access to the Mississippi River was possible from the lakes. With these two canals an all-inland water route was provided between New York City and New Orleans. The main business of many of the passenger lines in the 1800s was transporting immigrants. Many of the larger cities owe their existence to their position on the lakes as a freight destination as well as for being a magnet for immigrants. After railroads and surface roads developed the freight and passenger businesses dwindled and, excepting ferries and a few foreign cruise ships, now has vanished. Yet, the immigration routes still have an effect today. Immigrants often formed their own communities and some areas have a pronounced ethnicity, say Dutch, German, Polish or Finnish, among many others. Since many immigrants settled for a time in New England before moving westward, many areas on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes also have a New England feel, especially in home styles and accent. Since general freight these days is transported by railroads and trucks (lorries), domestic ships mostly move bulk cargoes, such as iron ore and its derivatives, coal and limestone for the steel industry. The domestic bulk freight developed because of the nearby mines. It was more economical to transport the ingredients for steel to centralized plants rather than try to make steel on the spot. Ingredients for steel, however, are not the only bulk shipments made. Because the lake maritime community largely developed independently, it has its own language. Ships, no matter the size, are referred to as boats. When the sailing ships gave way to steamships, they were called steamboats—the same term used on the Mississippi. The ships also have a distinctive design. Ships that primarily trade on the lakes are known as lakers. Foreign boats are known as salties. One of the more common sights on the lakes is the 1,000 by 105-foot (305 by 32-meter), 60,000 U.S. long ton (60,000 metric ton) self-unloader. This is a laker with a huge conveyor belt system that can unload itself by swinging a crane over the side. Understandably, because most things go by land and the fact that one modern ship is the equivalent of many older ships, the Great Lakes fleet is a fraction of what it once was.

Modern economy

The Great Lakes are used as a major mode of transport for bulk goods. The brigantine Le Griffon, which was commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was towed to the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first sailing ship to travel the upper Great Lakes on August 7, 1679. In 2002, 162 million net tons of dry bulk cargo was moved on the Lakes. This was, in order of volume: iron ore, coal, stone, grain, salt, cement and potash. The iron ore and much of the stone and coal are used in the steel industry. There is also some shipping of liquid and containerized cargo but most container ships cannot pass the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway because they are too wide. The total amount of shipping on the lakes has been on a downward trend for several years. 1679 Recreational boating and tourism are major industries on the Great Lakes. A few small cruise ships operate on the Great Lakes including a couple of sailing ships. Sport fishing, commercial fishing, and Native American fishing represent a 4 billion dollar (USD) a year industry with salmon, whitefish, smelt, lake trout, and walleye being major catches. The Great Lakes are used to supply drinking water to tens of millions of people in bordering areas. This valuable resource is collectively administered by the state and provincial governments adjacent to the lakes.

Passenger Traffic on the Lakes

Several ferries operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands, including Isle Royale, Pelee Island, Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, both Bois Blanc Islands, Kelleys Island, South Bass Island, North Manitou Island, South Manitou Island, Harsens Island, Manitoulin Island, and the Toronto Islands. As of 2005, three car ferry services cross the Great Lakes: a steamer across Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin; a high speed catamaran on a second Lake Michigan route from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Muskegon, Michigan; and an international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York to Toronto, Ontario.

Perils on the Inland Seas

Travel on the Lakes has not been without risks. Storms and reefs are a common threat, and many thousands of ships have sunk in these waters, the number estimates varying widely. The SS Edmund Fitzgerald, lost November 10, 1975, was the last major freighter lost on the lakes. The greatest concentration of these wrecks lies beneath Thunder Bay (Michigan) in Lake Huron near the point where eastbound and westbound shipping lanes converge. This area is prone to sudden and severe storms, particularly in the autumn from late October until early December. In one single storm, the Great Lakes Storm of 1913, at least 19 ships went down across the lakes in 2 days time, killing at least 248 sailors. Eight of these vessels lie in the vicinity of Thunder Bay. Today there is a NOAA Marine Archeology Research Station located in the [http://thunderbay.noaa.gov/ Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary]. Here divers can explore more the than 200 shipwrecks that form one of the most concentrated and best preserved marine-archeology sites in the world.

Invasive species

The Great Lakes have been hit economically by various invasive species, two of the most significant being the sea lamprey and zebra mussel. The mussel clogs pipes leading to the lake and causes approximately $1 billion in damages per year while destroying native species. The lamprey feeds on the sport fish of the lake, making it less attractive to fishermen. An electric fence has been set up across the mouth of the Great Lakes in order to keep an invasive species of carp out of the area.

Political issues

The International Joint Commission was established in 1909 to help prevent and resolve disputes relating to the use and quality of boundary waters and to advise Canada and the United States on questions related to water resources. Concerns over diversion of Lake water are of concern to both Americans and Canadians. Some water is diverted through the Chicago River to operate the Illinois Waterway but the flow is limited by treaty. Possible schemes for bottled water plants and diversion to dry regions of the continent raise concerns. Under the U.S. "Water Resources Development Act"[http://www.ohiodnr.com/water/planing/greatlksgov/fedstatut.htm], diversions of water from the Great Lakes basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors, which rarely occurs. International treaties regulate large diversions. In 1998, the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 600,000 m³ (158,000,000 US gal) of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries. Public outcry forced the abandonment of the plan before it began. The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 limits the number of armed vessels permitted on the Great Lakes. Some are wondering if this agreement will survive the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Lake Champlain on the border between upstate New York and northwestern Vermont briefly became the sixth "Great Lake of the United States" on March 6, 1998, when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927. This bill, which reauthorized the National Sea Grant Program, contained a line penned by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake. Not coincidentally, this status allows neighboring states to apply for additional federal research and education funds allocated to these national resources. Following a small uproar (and several New York Times articles), the Great Lake status was rescinded (although Vermont universities continue to receive funds to monitor and study the lake.)

Great Lakes ecological challenges

The Lakes provided fish to the Native groups who lived near them or upon their shores. Early European settlers were astounded by both the variety and numbers of fish. Historically, fish populations were the early indicator of the condition of the Lakes, and have remained one of the key indicators even in our technological era of sophisticated analyses and measuring instruments. According to the bi-national (U.S. and Canadian) resource book, The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, "the largest Great Lakes fish harvests were recorded in 1889 and 1899 at some 67,000 tonnes (147 million pounds)," though the beginning of environmental impacts on the fish can be traced back nearly a century prior to those years. By 1801, New York legislators found it necessary to pass regulations curtailing obstructions to the natural migrations of Atlantic salmon from Lake Erie into their spawning channels. In the early nineteenth century, Upper Canada’s government found it necessary to introduce similar legislation prohibiting the use of weirs, nets, etc. at the mouths of Lake Ontario’s tributary watercourses. Other protective legislation was passed, as well, but enforcement remained difficult and often quite spotty. On both sides of the U.S.-Canada border, the proliferation of dams and impoundments multiplied, necessitating more regulatory efforts. The decline in fish populations was unmistakable by the middle of the nineteenth century. The decline in salmon was recognized by Canadian officials and reported as virtually a complete absence by the end of the 1860s, the Wisconsin Fisheries Commission noted a reduction of roughly a quarter in general fish harvests by 1875. Overfishing was cited as responsible for the decline of the population of various whitefish, important due to their culinary desirability and, hence, economic consequence. Moreover, between 1879 and 1899, reported whitefish harvests declined from some 24.3 million to just over 9 million. Recorded sturgeon catches fell from 7.8 million pounds in 1879 to 1.7 million in 1899. There were, however, other factors in the declines besides overfishing and the problems posed by dams and other obstructions. Logging in the region removed tree cover near stream channels which provide spawning grounds, and this affected necessary shade and temperature-moderating conditions. Removal of tree cover also destabilized soil, allowing soil to be carried in greater quantity into the streambeds, and even brought about more frequent flooding. Running cut logs down the Lakes’ tributary rivers also stirred bottom sediments. In 1884, the New York Fish Commission determined that the dumping of sawmill waste (e.g., chips and sawdust) was impacting Lakes fish populations. The Great Lakes are international, and in situations that require regulation, a lack of cooperation between the U.S. and Canada might be predicted to have disastrous consequences. In the development of ecological problems in the Great Lakes, it was the influx of parasitic lamprey populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal that led to the two federal governments attempting to work together – which proved a very complicated and troubled road. Nevertheless, despite the ever more sophisticated efforts to eliminate or minimize the lamprey, by the mid 1950s Lake Michigan and Huron’s lake trout populations were reduced by about 99%, with the lamprey deemed largely to blame. A result was the bi-national Great Lakes Fishery Commission. Other ecological problems in the Lakes and their surroundings have stemmed from urban sprawl, sewage disposal, and toxic industrial effluent. These, of course, also affect aquatic food chains and fish populations. Some of these glaring problem areas are what attracted the high-level publicity of Great Lakes ecological troubles in the 1960s and 1970s. Evidence of chemical pollution in the Lakes and their tributaries now stretches back for decades. In the late 1960s, the recurrent phenomenon of the surface of river stretches (e.g., Ohio’s Cuyahoga River) catching fire, due to a combination of oil, chemicals, and combustible materials floating on the water’s surface, came to the attention of a public growing more environmentally aware. Another aspect that caught popular attention was the “toxic blobs” (expanses of lake bed covered by various combinations of such substances as solvents, wood preservatives, coal tar, and metals) found in Lake Superior, the St. Clair River, and other portions of the Great Lakes region. According to the authoritative bi-national source The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, "Only pockets remain of the once large commercial fishery."

Important cities along the lakes

Lake Superior
- Duluth, Minnesota
- Thunder Bay, Ontario
- Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
- Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
- Marquette, Michigan
- Houghton, Michigan Lake Michigan
- Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Manitowoc, Wisconsin
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Chicago, Illinois
- Gary, Indiana
- Benton Harbor, Michigan
- Muskegon, Michigan
- Traverse City, Michigan Lake Erie
- Toledo, Ohio
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- Buffalo, New York
- Detroit, Michigan
- Leamington, Ontario
- Windsor, Ontario Lake Ontario
- Rochester, New York
- Hamilton, Ontario
- Kingston, Ontario
- Toronto, Ontario
- Oshawa, Ontario
- St. Catharines, Ontario Lake Huron
- Bay City, Michigan
- Port Huron, Michigan
- Mackinac Island, Michigan
- Sarnia, Ontario
- Owen Sound, Ontario
- Collingwood, Ontario

External links

- [http://www.great-lakes.net/ Great Lakes Information Network]
- [http://www.glc.org/ Great Lakes Commission]
- EPA: [http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/ Great Lakes National Program Office]
- Environment Canada—Ontario Region: [http://www.on.ec.gc.ca/greatlakes/default.asp?lang=En&n=7E5E6AF1-1 Our Great Lakes]
- [http://www.midwestlakes.org/ Midwest Lakes Policy Center]
- [http://www.ijc.org/ International Joint Commission]
- ja:五大湖 ko:오대호 simple:Great Lakes zh-min-nan:Gō·-toā-ô·

Mississippi River

This page is about the river in the United States; there is also a Canadian Mississippi River (Ontario). The Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning 'big river' (gichi-ziibi in the modern language), is the second-longest river in the United States; the longest is the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi. Taken together, they form the largest river system in North America. If measured from the head of the Missouri, the length of the Missouri/Mississippi combination is approximately 6,270 km (3,900 miles) long.

Geography

North America With its source Lake Itasca at 1475 feet (450 m) above sea level in Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota, the river falls to 725 feet (220 m) just below Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis. The Mississippi is joined by the Illinois River and the Missouri River near Saint Louis, and by the Ohio at Cairo, Illinois. The Arkansas River joins the Mississippi in the state of Arkansas. The Atchafalaya River in Louisiana is a major distributary of the Mississippi. The Mississippi drains most of the area between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, except for the area drained by the Great Lakes. It runs through, or borders, ten states in the United States -- Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana -- before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) downstream from New Orleans. Measurements of the length of the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico vary, but the EPA's number is 2,320 miles (3733 km). A raindrop falling in Lake Itasca would arrive at the Gulf of Mexico in about 90 days. [http://www.nps.gov/miss/features/factoids/] New Orleans The river is divided into the upper Mississippi, from its source south to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio to its mouth near New Orleans. The upper Mississippi is further divided into three sections: the headwaters, from the source to Saint Anthony Falls; a series of man-made lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis; and the middle Mississippi, a relatively free-flowing river downstream of the confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis. A series of 27 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the 1930s, is designed primarily to maintain a 9 foot (2.7 m) channel for commercial barge traffic. The lakes formed are also used for recreational boating and fishing. The dams make the river deeper and wider but do not stop it. No flood control is intended. During periods of high flow, the gates, some of which are submersible, are completely opened and the dams simply cease to function. Below St. Louis the Mississippi is relatively free-flowing, although it is constrained by numerous levees and directed by numerous wing dams. Through a natural process known as deltaic switching the lower Mississippi River has shifted its final course to the ocean every thousand years or so. This occurs because the deposits of silt and sediment raise the river's level causing it to eventually find a steeper route to the Gulf of Mexico. The abandoned distributary diminishes in volume and forms what are known as bayous. This process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance gulfward from 15 to 50 miles. (See: Mississippi River Delta) Other changes in the course of the river have occurred because of earthquakes along the