The Coolidge examiner., 1932-09-30


hosts to thousands of visitors.
Not many decades ago all Illinois
was forest-clad; her roads were In
dian trails; her buildings teepees
and pioneer huts.
Then the pioneers and woodsmen
pushed from the east in growing
numbers. They came In hatboats
and covered wagons. Later they
came by steamboat and railroad. To
day the old routes of the earliest
pioneers echo with the hum OF air
planes.
Nature endowed the state with
a fertile soil to nourish mankind
and stored treasures of minerals be-
meath to feed mans machines of
travel and industry. More than all,
it blessed the state with a rugged,
healthful climate, which plays so
large part In fixing the tempera-
ment and destiny of peoples and ma
tions. What man has made of these
factors Is the story of Illinois today.
Glimpse 1t for a moment as from
an airplane winging northward, over
crisscrOssed arteries OF concrete
and steel and water, with towns and
villages knOtting them into net
work. Forests and orchards of
fruit give way to somber mines Of
coal. The earth Is carpeted for
miles with waving corn. Cities and
tall stacks of mills become thicker.
There Is a broad belt of green pas.
lures alive with dairy herds. Then
comes a great, throbbing city under
pail of smoke, with humanity snug
Cling closer and climbing higher.
Here acres OF emerald parks inter
sperse drab-roOfed squares, and
finally burst of graceful towers
edges an inland sea.
Every village. every hamlet. has
its story. some in the dim past,
others in the thriving present.
Traces of colonial days are few in
Illinois, and towns show true to
type, as one rolls over the smooth
concrete highways. But each adds
its mite OF story. and there is no
easier way to see them than by jog
ging north, over the aptly named
Meridian highway. through the cen
ter of the state, 3S5 miles from
southern tip to northern border.
From South to North.
In the course of this journey the
traveller will see the aspect OF ma
ture change as In few other states.
In "Egypt"-so named by the pio-
neers because of it's fertility-pe-
cans, cotton, tobacco, magnolias,
bald cypress. and lotus are grow
ing; in the north sugar beets, hick-
ory. tamarack and forests of white
pine brave the biting winter. Most
of Kentucky and Virginia are north
of Cairo. while Boston Is farther
south than Zion. In the south the
frost is usually gone by the end OF
March: in the north II keeps the
farmer guessing until May.
The proposed trip will be an easy
one. for no other state has more
miles of concrete roads. The auto
mobilist who starts his car In New
York. heads across the continent to
Seattle. down the Pacific coast to
Los Angeles, over the wide open
spaces to New Orleans. and then
hack through Richmond and Wash
ington, will have covered less than
theS S.000miles that are paved with ce-
ment concrete in Illinois. In one
year more paved highway was add
ed than the distance from Chicago
to Portland. Maine. and $500 men
and 10000 horses were employed at
the task.
Cairo is both the southern tip
and within a few miles of the low
est spot in Illinois, only 2T9 feet
above sea level. II Is a city rich
in memories. There Gen. Ulysses
S. Grant had his headquarters from
September. 1861, to April. 1862.
When the Illinois Central railroad
pushed across the state. Cairo. sat
isfied that the Ohio river never
could be bridged. saw itself a me-
trOpolis where trains and boats
would always meet. Charles Dick
ems was one who bought q lot in
the city of dreams. Before he crossed
from England and made the journey
west to see it. the temperamental
river had moved and it was far be-
meath the water. He blamed Cairo,
and Cairo has never forgiven him
for what he wrote.
Cairo a Transfer Point.
Few of the graceful old river
steamers remain, both rivers have
been bridged, and Cairo lives in an.
other age II is transfer point be.
tween water and rail for the gov.
ernment barge line to New Orleans
and. in winter, the northern ter.
minal. A single tow of long, squat