Exploring the Prairie State Trivia Quiz

Answer: Chicago

You'll find the great city of Chicago hanging around on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, which gives the place a gorgeous waterfront for a city in the Midwest. Chicago's skyline rises immediately inland from Lake Michigan, with Grant Park and the lakefront forming a recognizable foreground. Geographically, it is the largest city (by far) in the state.

There is a bit more going on here than just a big city next to a big lake, though. Chicago's location helped make it a major transportation center, sitting as it does near the Great Lakes and the drainage divide between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system. The Chicago River is especially famous for having its flow reversed through an engineering project, sending water away from Lake Michigan rather than toward it.

Answer: Charles Mound

If you're looking to do some mountain climbing in Illinois, the best I can do for you is Charles Mound. It does what most mounds do, and it does it well. You can find it lazing about in Jo Daviess County in northwestern Illinois. It's the state's highest natural point, reaching an elevation of about 1,235 feet (375 meters) above sea level according to the U.S. Geological Survey. So, yeah, Illinois' highest point is a "mound", and that mound is the sixth lowest highest point of any state. Leave your hiking boots at home for this climb.

This is fun. Jo Daviess County is part of the so-called "Driftless Area", an area of the Upper Midwest that escaped the glaciers that flattened and smoothed much of the surrounding landscape.

Answer: Ohio

Ohio is the only one of these that does not share a border with Illinois. Illinois has borders with Wisconsin to the north, Missouri to the west across the Mississippi River, and Kentucky to the south and southeast, mostly across the Ohio River. Ohio waves at the state from across Indiana. Illinois has five land neighbors altogether: Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and Indiana. Six, if you count the water boundary across Lake Michigan with Michigan.

Answer: Fort de Chartres State Historic Site

Fort de Chartres was built by the French in the Illinois Country, with its first incarnation going up around 1720. It went through a couple of iterations over the following decades, with the third and final French fort built of stone beginning in 1753.

It became the French seat of government and a major military station in the Illinois Country. The fort was eventually abandoned after France lost control of the region, and the Mississippi River was remarkably effective at de-Frenchification of the area, demolishing large parts of the old fort.

The site today includes reconstructed portions of the fort along with surviving and exposed archaeological features.

Answer: Springfield

Springfield is known as the "Home of Abraham Lincoln" because - stay with me - it was the home of Abraham Lincoln for nearly 25 years. He moved there in his twenties in 1837, and stuck around until he left Illinois for Washington, D.C., in 1861 on a one-way trip. It was where he built his legal and political career and where he and his wife raised a family. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site preserves the house at 413 S. Eighth Street. The National Park Service notes that it is the only house Lincoln ever owned.

Springfield is also the capital of Illinois, so the city has a pretty packed collection of places connected with Lincoln. The Lincoln Home (pictured), his law office site, the Old State Capitol, and his tomb are all among the city's historical bragging rights. Lincoln's Tomb is in Oak Ridge Cemetery, where Lincoln, his wife Mary, and three of their four sons are buried.

Answer: Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park

Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park spans more than 6.5 miles (10.5 km) along the Lake Michigan shore in the northeastern part of Illinois. The 4,160-acre park contains dunes and swales, beaches, marshes, oak forests, and a lovely variety of plant and animal life.

More than 650 species of plants have been recorded around about the dunes area alone. Sand and rocks apparently make for fertile ground to some plants. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources describes the park as the only remaining beach ridge shoreline in the entire state.

The black oaks are particularly cool because they grow on the sandy ridges in an open, savanna-like arrangement.

Answer: Mississippi River

The Mississippi River forms Illinois' western boundary for roughly 580 miles, running down the state's northwestern corner from East Dubuque all the way to Cairo. That's a big chunk of border. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources says the Mississippi forms a 581-mile (935-km) stretch of the state's western border, making it the longest of all the Illinois border rivers.

The river does a little more than just sit there looking pretty on a map. Towns such as Galena, the Quad Cities, and Quincy all developed along or near its banks, rivers being the highways before cars and trucks took over. Farther south, it meets the Ohio River near Cairo at the southern tip of Illinois.

Answer: Joliet

Joliet grew up around the Des Plaines River and was yet another important transportation center because of its location along the various waterways, including the Illinois & Michigan Canal. The canal opened in 1848 and connected the Illinois River with the Chicago River, creating a route between the Mississippi River system and the Great Lakes. Railroads soon joined in on the fun, with the first train from Chicago reaching Joliet in 1852. So Joliet was already becoming a transportation crossroads while the automobile was still waiting for its day in the sun, as shown in this 1937 drawing of Joliet in 1868.

Answer: Illinois River

The Illinois River spills through about 273 miles of the state before joining the Mississippi near Grafton in southwestern Illinois. It begins at the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers in northeastern Illinois and flows generally southwest through the heart of the state. Along the way, it says hi to places that include Ottawa, Peoria, and Havana. Near Grafton, the Illinois River meets the Mississippi in an area known for rugged bluffs and river valleys. Pere Marquette State Park does its thing just north of the confluence.

Answer: Shawnee National Forest

The answer is Shawnee National Forest. It covers about 289,000 acres in southern Illinois, stretching across the state's southern tip between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. The terrain there is very different from the flat prairie stereotype associated with the Midwest.

The forest contains sandstone bluffs, rocky canyons, forested hills, and cool formations carved into the bedrock. Garden of the Gods is probably the big celebrity of the bunch, with towering sandstone rock formations looking out over the surrounding landscape.