Illinois, the Prairie State, is a miraculous state. It is located in north central USA. Wisconsin borders it to the north, to the south it is bordered by Kentucky and the Ohio River; in the east are Indiana and the Wabash River. To the west are Iowa, Missouri, and the Mississippi River. Illinois's exact location is 39.78143° N and 89.64465° W.

Illinois has a temperate climate. It has cold, snowy winters and hot, sunny summers. There is an average of 37 inches precipitation per year. The southern part of the state is the wettest part, which receives an average of 46 inches of precipitation per year while the north receives less than 32 inches a year. Illinois has tornadoes all year round. Occasionally during the spring, violent windstorms sweep across the state. Hailstorms occur during the summer.

In July, the north is about 75° F while the south is about 79° F. During the summer, daytime in Chicago is about 86° F and East St. Louis, the hottest part of the state, is about 90° F. Once recorded there was a temperature of 117° F. Nighttime in the summer is pretty hot, too. Nighttime in the north is about 66° F while in the south it can be 69° F. January temperatures in the north is about 24° F and in the south, it is about 34° F.

Illinois is an average sized state. It ranks 25^th in size. Its area is 56,000 sq. miles. As for population, it ranks 6^th. It has about 12,000,000 people. Most of them live in Chicago.

The capital of Illinois is Springfield, which is the state's 3^rd capital. The largest city in the state is Chicago, which is the 3^rd largest city in the US. It is filled with skyscrapers, tourists, and businesspeople. The reason skyscrapers were built there was because of the high cost of land.

There are many highways and railroads that pass through Chicago. O'Hare Field, which is one of the world's busiest airports, can be found in Chicago. Chicago is the center of banking in the Midwest.

Illinois has high and low points. The highest point is Charles Mound, which is 1,235 ft. high, which is in the north, and the lowest point is Delta, Cairo that is 279 ft. high. It has lots of prairies, fertile plains and open hills in the south. The Illinois River flows north. Lake Michigan is an attraction to many people and is one of the Great Lakes.

Illinois is represented by many symbols. The motto is ''State sovereignty, national union.'' Illinois is sometimes called the Prairie State because of its prairie and the Land of Lincoln because Abraham Lincoln once called Illinois home. ''By thy rivers gently flowing, Illinois" is a song lots of people in the state love. The cardinal is the state bird. There is a wide variety of animals in the state but the state animal is the white tailed deer. The state insect is the Monarch butterfly. The state mineral is fluorite and the white oak is the state tree. The state flower is the violet. Illinois has lots of different types of grass but the state grass is the big bluestem. The state fish is the bluegill and the tully monster is the state fossil. A dance many people like is the square dance that is the state dance. Illinois gets its name from the Algonquian word for warriors. It has 102 counties.

The first people in Illinois were the Cahokia, Kaskaskia, Michigamea, Moinguena, Peoria, and Tamoroa tribes, which were all Algonquian Indian tribes. They were allies to the French. They were weakened easily by 17^th century Iroquois tribes and 18^th century tribes around the Great Lakes. By 1809, only the Kaskaskia tribes remained so they moved west of the Mississippi River. The first settlements were French.

Illinois became the 21^st state on December 3 1818. About 53 years later in October 8, 1871, fire broke out in central Chicago. No one knows for sure how it started but it may have started when Katie O’Leary’s cow accidentally kicked over a lantern. It spread through the city quickly because most of the buildings at that time in Chicago were wooden and it was a dry, windy day. It lasted for 31 hours. 300 lives were lost, 20,000 buildings burned, 100,000 were left homeless, and 10 square kilometers were destroyed. Later, while Chicago was being rebuilt, the Home Insurance building, which was 10 stories high, became the world’s first modern skyscraper.

President Lincoln, the 16^th president of the US was a famous Illinoisan even though he wasn’t born there. He was born in Kentucky and, he moved to Illinois.

Some places to visit in Illinois are the 73 beautiful parks like Pere Marquette State Park, which is 8,000 acres of wooded country, Mississippi Palisades State Park, or White Pines State Park which has the state's last remaining stand of virgin white pine. It has many forests like Shawnee National Forest, the only national forest in the state. The forest has 422 sq. miles of wooded hill country. There are many trails such as Lincoln Heritage Trail, which is 993 mi. and was established in 1963.

There is a lot to do in Illinois. You can have a picnic in the parks or camp and hike in many places. You can fish, boat, and even swim in lake Michigan.

Illinois ranks 5^th as an industrial state. It manufactures machinery, electronic equipment, and chemical products which we use a lot today. It also prints and publishes books, magazines, etc.

80% of Illinois is farmland. Farmers grow mainly soybeans but they also grow corn, wheat, sorghum, hay, potatoes, oats, grapes, berries, barley, rye, alfalfa, apples, asparagus, and melons. They raise hogs, beef cattle, poultry, and sheep.

Above ground, natural resources in Illinois are timber such as oak, hickory, maple, and cottonwood. Illinois also has fertile soil that is helpful in growing crops. Underground natural resources are coal, crude, petroleum, stone, sand, gravel, cement, flourspar, clay, limestone, lead and zinc.