The Mississippi River is the primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,766 km) to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The main stem is entirely within the United States; the total drainage basin is 1,151,000 sq mi (2,980,000 km2), of which only about one percent is in Canada. The Mississippi ranks as the world's tenth-largest river by discharge flow, and the largest in North America.
The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately 273 miles (439 km) in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of 28,756.6 square miles (74,479 km2). The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers in the Chicago metropolitan area, and it generally flows to the southwest across Illinois, until it empties into the Mississippi near Grafton, Illinois. Its drainage basin extends into southeastern Wisconsin, northwestern Indiana, and a very small area of southwestern Michigan in addition to central Illinois. Along its shores are several river ports, including Peoria, Illinois. Historic and recreation areas on the river include Starved Rock, and the internationally important wetlands of the Emiquon Complex and Dixon Waterfowl Refuge.
Marshall County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 11,742. Its county seat is Lacon.
Lacon is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Illinois, United States. It is part of the Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,878 at the 2020 census, down from 1,937 in 2010.
Sparland is a village in Marshall County, Illinois, United States. The population was 366 at the 2020 census, down from 406 in 2010. It is part of the Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Toluca is a city in Marshall County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,340 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The population was 37,108 at the 2020 census. Located at the confluence of the Rock and Mississippi rivers, it is one of the Quad Cities along with neighboring Moline and East Moline in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities had a population of 384,324 in 2020. The city is home to Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US, which employs 6,000 people. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is now called Arsenal Island.
Illinois Route 17 is a rural, arterial east–west state highway that runs east from a former ferry crossing in New Boston along the banks of the Mississippi River to State Road 2 west of Lowell, Indiana. It is 209.40 miles (337.00 km) long.
Forgottonia, also spelled Forgotonia, is the name given to a 16-county region in Western Illinois in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This geographic region forms the distinctive western bulge of Illinois that is roughly equivalent to "The Tract", the Illinois portion of the Military Tract of 1812, along and west of the Fourth Principal Meridian. Since this wedge-shaped region lies between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, it has historically been isolated from the eastern portion of Central Illinois.
The Decatur, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area is a moderately urban region of North-Central Alabama. The 2020 Census put the population of the metropolitan area at 152,740, of which one-third resides within the boundaries of its core city, Decatur, Alabama, It is also considered to be part of the North, Northwest, and North-Central regions of Alabama.
Lacon Township is located in Marshall County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2010 census, its population was 2,501 and it contained 1,116 housing units.
Lacon, also known as Cedar Crossing, is a ghost town in extreme southern Morgan County, Alabama, United States. Lacon was named after Lacon, Illinois. Built at the northern foot of Burleson Mountain, alongside the railroad track there, a spring and good clay enabled a substantial brickyard. The Lacon brickyard made bricks with a distinctive mark, "LACON", imprinted on the large sides of the bricks.
Marshall State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park on 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) in Marshall County, Illinois, United States.
Greenbury Lafayette Fort was a U.S. Representative from Illinois.
The Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of six counties in Central Illinois, anchored by the city of Peoria. As of the 2020 census, the area had a population of 402,391. The City of Peoria, according to the 2020 US Census Bureau, has 113,150 people.
On March 16–17, 1942, a deadly late-winter tornado outbreak struck a large area of the Central and Southern United States, killing 149 people and injuring at least 1,312. At least five states reported violent tornadoes, from Illinois and Indiana south to Mississippi, beginning with an F4 tornado in the morning in Illinois. Intense activity spread south to the Gulf Coast and north to the Michigan–Indiana border as the day went on. Seven violent tornadoes were reported, one of which was a powerful F5 in Illinois. A long-tracked F4 tornado family in Mississippi claimed 63 lives as well, becoming the deadliest event of the outbreak. Another long-lived F4 in Tennessee killed 15 more people, and a series of intense tornadoes caused 24 other deaths in Kentucky. The outbreak also produced 18 tornadoes that caused at least one death—ranking eighth on a list of similar events since 1880 by tornado researcher Thomas P. Grazulis.
The Tri-County Conference is a high school conference in north central Illinois. The conference participates in athletics and activities in the Illinois High School Association. The conference incorporates 8 small public and 2 small private high schools, with enrollments between 82-428 students in LaSalle, Livingston, Marshall, Putnam, and Woodford counties.
Robert Boal Fort was an American politician from Illinois. The son of Greenbury L. Fort, he was the third consecutive generation of his family to serve in the Illinois Senate for the district representing Marshall County, Illinois. Fort also served as a captain in the Spanish–American War and was the mayor of Lacon, Illinois.
The lynching of F. W. Stewart occurred shortly after midnight on November 7, 1898, about a mile outside of Lacon, Illinois. Stewart had been accused of the assault of a miner's daughter in Toluca. About one hundred miners formed a mob and broke into the Marshall County jail to retrieve Stewart, whom they subsequently hanged.
