Illinois |
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| Entered the Union: Dec. 3, 1818 (21) | Capital: Springfield | |
| State Nicknames: Prairie State • Land of Lincoln | ||
| State Motto: State sovereignty, national union | ||
| Origin of Name: Algonquin for “tribe of superior men” | ||
| State Tree: White Oak | State Bird: Cardinal | |
| State Animal: White-tailed Deer | State Flower : Violet | |
| State Song: “Illinois” | ||
| National Forests: 2 • State Parks: 43 • State Forests: 5 | ||
| Famous for: Abraham Lincoln Historic Sites, Sears Tower | ||
| Famous Illinoisans: Jack Benny (comedian), Black Hawk (Sauk Chief), Harry Blackmun (US Supreme Court), John Chancellor (TV commentator), Jimmy Connors (tennis), Miles Davis • Benny Goodman (jazz), Walt Disney (film animator), Ernest Hemingway • Ray Bradbury (authors), Wild Bill Hickok (scout), Dan Fogelberg • Burl Ives (singers), Quincy Jones (composer, producer), Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan (Presidents), Carl Sandburg (poet), Oprah Winfrey (TV host) Charlton Heston • Rock Hudson • Bill Murray • Bob Newhart • Richard Pryor, Raquel Welch (actors) | ||
| Native Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | ||
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| In 1673, French explorers canoed down the Mississippi River, the western boundary of Illinois and went northward on the Illinois River.Cahokia, the first permanent settlement in Illinois, was a fur-trading post established in 1699. | ||||||||||
| The end of the French and Indian War gave all land east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain in 1763. During the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), George Rogers Clark of Virginia and a group called the “Big Knives” raided English forts in Illinois. They captured Kaskaskia and Cahokia and made Illinois part of the county of Virginia. | ||||||||||
| In 1858, Abraham Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate. Lincoln’s stand against slavery during several debates in Illinois, gave him national attention. He lost the election, but became president of the United States two years later. Six southern states seceded from the Union and the Civil War (1861-1865) began after Lincoln’s inauguration. | ||||||||||
| Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln" as Abraham Lincoln spent most of his life there. | ||||||||||
| Inventors John Deere and Cyrus McCormick made their fortunes in Illinois by improving farm machinery. | ||||||||||
| The tallest man in the world was born in Alton in 1918. He weighed 491 pounds and stood 8 feet, 11 inches tall and wore a size 37 shoe. | ||||||||||
| The Home Insurance Building was built in 1885 in Chicago, becoming the world’s first modern skyscraper. | ||||||||||
| The tallest building in Illinois is the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago | ||||||||||
| Chicago is the nation's third largest city. | ||||||||||
| Illinois is the sixth most populous state in the country. | ||||||||||
| A replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa stands in the town of Niles. | ||||||||||
| Illinois' Ethnic Roots: German 19.6%, African 15.1%, Irish 12.2%, Mexican 9.2%, Polish 7.5%. | ||||||||||
| Religion in Illinois: 80% Christian (49% Protestant, 30% Catholic, 1% Other), 16% No Religion, 4% Other Religions | ||||||||||
| Reagan, our 40th President, was born in Tampico in 1911. | ||||||||||
| The Dairy Queen franchise was first opened in Joliet, Illinois, on June 22, 1940. | ||||||||||
At a Glance
Illinois Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | Dec. 3, 1818 (21) |
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| Capital | Springfield |
| Nickname | Prairie State • Land of Lincoln |
| State Bird | Cardinal |
| State Flower | Violet |
| State Tree | White Oak |
New for 2026
More Illinois Facts & Photos
Route 66 was commissioned in 1926 with its starting point in downtown Chicago, 2,448 miles from the road's western end in Santa Monica, California.
Illinois named the Tully monster its state fossil in 1989. The soft-bodied sea creature lived about 310 million years ago and has never been found outside the Mazon Creek fossil beds.
In 1900 the 28-mile Sanitary and Ship Canal reversed the flow of the Chicago River, sending its water away from Lake Michigan to protect the city's drinking supply.
The world's first Ferris wheel spun above Chicago's World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, a 264-foot answer to the Eiffel Tower.
Wind and rain spent 320 million years shaping the sandstone at Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee National Forest, where Camel Rock earned a spot on a 2016 U.S. quarter.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
"We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"(1863)
Last updated: July 2026