ILLINOIS 



2923 



ILLINOIS 



historically Starved Rock, where the Indians 

 made their last stand. Near it is Deer Park, 

 another of the beautiful small areas of the 

 state, which in its maze of miniature canyons 

 has surprises to offer even to those who have 

 seen the great canyons of the West. Other 

 important rivers are the Desplaines and Kan- 

 kakee, which unite to form the Illinois; the 

 Fox, Rock, Big Muddy, Kaskaskia, Sangamon, 

 Little Wabash and Embarras. 



Illinois has not the abundance of lakes of its 

 two neighbors, Wisconsin and Michigan, Fox 

 Lake and Grass Lake being practically the 

 omV two of any size and importance, and both 

 are important summer resorts about forty miles 

 from Chicago. Peoria .Lake is but an expan- 

 sion of the Illinois River caused by the sedi- 

 ment deposited by a tributary stream. 



Climate. In most parts of the state the 

 summers are very warm- and the winters quite 

 cold. Except in the northeast section, around 

 Chicago, the Great Lakes exert very little 

 influence on the climate. As in all states which 

 have a considerable north-and-south length, 

 there is a noticeable difference in the means of 

 temperature in the extreme regions, the aver- 

 age in the south being 58 and that in the 

 north but 47. The range of temperature is 

 greater in the north than in the south. The 

 lowest temperature ever recorded in the state 

 was 32 below zero, in the northwest portion, 

 in February, 1905, while the highest, recorded 

 at Centralia in July, 1901, was 115. Violent 

 changes are common in the state, for no moun- 

 tain chains interfere with the sweep of the 

 warm breezes up the Mississippi Valley from 

 the Gulf of Mexico, or with that of the cold 

 winds down from the north. 



The average rainfall for the state is about 

 thirty-eight inches, that of the south being 

 forty-three inches and that of the north about 

 ten inches less. 



Mining. No other one mineral makes pos- 

 sible such industrial development as does coal, 

 and of this valuable product Illinois has a large 

 supply. The area of the coal beds is estimated 

 at 42,900 square miles, the largest in any state, 

 and of the 102 counties one-half have mines. 

 More coal is produced in the southern than in 

 the northern counties, and in all, the state 

 puts on the market in a year over 50,000.000 

 long tons, only Pennsylvania and West Vir- 

 ginia producing more. In the production of 

 petroleum, too, Illinois ranks third (1915), Cali- 

 fornia and Oklahoma being the two states with 

 larger output. The remarkable development 



of the state as an oil-producer has taken place 

 since 1905, the output increasing within three 

 years from a few hundred barrels to 33,000,000, 

 then rapidly decreasing to 22,000,000 barrels 

 in 1915. 



In addition, excellent tile and brick clay is 

 found in large quantities, fluor spar to a greater 

 extent than in any other state, and lead, silver 

 and zinc in small quantities. All in all, this 

 state, which at first thought one would scarcely 

 classify among the chief mineral-producing 

 states, in 1914 ranked third among all the 

 states in that respect. 



Manufactures. No other state has shown 

 such a remarkable development of the manu- 

 facturing industry within so short a time as 

 did Illinois in the latter half of the nineteenth 

 centurj'. Its coal, its excellent river and lake 

 transportation, and its rapidly-spreading rail- 

 roads accounted for this in large measure, and 

 this in its turn accounted for the increase in 

 the number of cities and large towns. No 

 other state west of the Alleghanies has such 

 extensive manufactures, and of the Eastern 

 states only New York and Pennsylvania excel 

 it. Over sixty-five per cent of the total manu- 

 factured products of the state are made in 

 Chicago, and in that city live more than three- 

 fifths of the state's wage-earners employed in 

 manufacturing establishments. 



By all means the most important single in- 

 dustry is slaughtering and meat-packing, in 

 which Illinois leads all the states. The total 

 products of this industry, which is centered in 

 Chicago, amount in a year to about $390,000,- 

 000. Next in importance are the foundry and 

 machine-shop products, of which the annual 

 output is worth about one-third that of the 

 meat-packing and slaughtering industry. The 

 manufactures of men's clothing, of agricultural 

 implements, of flour and gristmill products, of 

 iron and steel and of lumber and timber prod- 

 ucts are also of great importance, while the 

 printing and publishing business has reached 

 enormous proportions, being exceeded only by 

 that of New York. 



Most of the industries are rather sharply 

 localized. Thus South Chicago and Joliet have 

 the most of the iron and steel mills, receiving 

 their iron ore by way of the Great Lakes from 

 Minnesota and Michigan. Peoria has the 

 greatest distilleries in the United States, the 

 internal revenue collections for the ten-year 

 period ending in 1915 exceeding $375,000,000, 

 more than the cost of building the Panama 

 Canal ; Elgin is famous for its watches ; Moline 



