Illinois | History, Cities, Capital, & Facts (2024)

Relief and drainage

Much of Illinois’s land is flat, with irregular plains in the western, northern, and southern sections. This area once constituted a vast tallgrass prairie, virtually all of which was converted to farmland or urban sprawl. The unglaciated southernmost part of the state is in many ways out of character with the rest of Illinois. Shawnee National Forest, the only large tract of federally administered land in Illinois, covers a great part of this region. Southern Illinois consists of gently sloping, open hills. Rolling hills in the northwestern corner include the state’s highest point, Charles Mound, which is 1,235 feet (376 metres) above sea level. The statewide average elevation is about 600 feet (180 metres).

The deep black soil of much of northern and central Illinois has unusual richness, and its quality for agriculture is among the finest in the world. The soils of the southern third of the state are far less suited for farming.

Illinois is drained by as many as 900 streams emptying mostly into the Mississippi River system. The Chicago and Calumet rivers—originally flowing into the St. Lawrence by way of Lake Michigan—have been altered through the construction of canals to drain into the Mississippi by way of the Illinois River, which roughly bisects the northern portion of the state from northeast to southwest. The Ohio River joins the Mississippi at the state’s southern tip near Cairo, an area known as “Little Egypt.”

Water lies under all of Illinois in natural underground reservoirs. Chicago and many of its suburbs draw their water from Lake Michigan, but most of northern Illinois’s water is pumped from underground wells. Some regions face a dwindling water supply; around Joliet the water table has been lowered hundreds of feet since the early 20th century. Most of the state’s lakes are man-made.

Climate

Because of its geographic position and its long north-south axis, Illinois experiences wide regional variations in temperature. Across the state, seasonal temperature variation also tends to be great, with typically cold, snowy winters and hot summers; extremes are somewhat ameliorated around Lake Michigan. Mean winter temperatures are about 22 °F (−6 °C) in the north and 37 °F (3 °C) in the south; summer equivalents, respectively, are 74 °F (23 °C) and 80 °F (27 °C). Mean annual precipitation in the north is about 34 inches (864 mm) and in the south 46 inches (1,170 mm). The growing season varies from 205 days in the south to 155 days in the northernmost counties.

Plant and animal life

Illinois vegetational regions are separated into the tallgrass prairie of northern and central Illinois and the oak-hickory forest of the western and southern regions. Only tiny fragments of the original tallgrass prairie have been preserved, and some small areas have been reconstructed; the largest restored prairie in the state is Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, near Joliet. Before European settlers—first the French and then the English—moved in beginning in the 17th century, oak-hickory forests also prevailed in the north. The settlers, needing wood for fuel and construction material and the lumbering industry, stripped most of the trees, which left only 10 percent forest cover in Illinois. More than 6,200 square miles (16,000 square km) of forests remain, some 1,100 square miles (2,800 square km) of them in Shawnee National Forest. The state’s length gives it an unusual variety of Northern and Southern plant life. Both Northern and Southern wildflowers grow in Illinois, as do a variety of trees, such as white pines, tamaracks, walnuts, cypresses, and tupelos.

Before 1800 abundant wildlife roamed the prairies and forests, but bison, bears, wolves, mountain lions (pumas), porcupines, and elk have disappeared. Deer became extinct in 1910, but in 1933 the state department of conservation placed small herds that established a growing deer population. By the early 21st century the number of white-tailed deer in the state had reached into the hundreds of thousands. Coyotes and foxes can be found in woodlands and other natural areas and, increasingly, in and around urban areas. Game birds such as quail and pheasant are not as plentiful as in previous times, but waterfowl are abundant during the spring and fall migrations. Pollution has nearly wiped out many species of fish, but bullheads, carp, catfish, white and yellow bass, and walleye still abound.