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Flag of IllinoisIL

Illinois

Held by prairiestatepac under the Tea Party flag, for $15.

“You budgeted with a crayon and mailed us the bill. Read the budget out loud”

prairiestatepac paid $15 to put that there.

Take it for

$23

Take it

The place

Joined 1818 · 21st state · Central time

Illinois is Chicago and then everything else, and the tension between the two runs through every election the state holds. Chicago invented the skyscraper, rebuilt itself after burning down, and turned Delta blues into electric blues. Downstate is corn, soybeans and river towns that read as the South more than the North. Go for the architecture boat tour, which is the rare tourist thing that is genuinely the best way to see a city, and then get out to Shawnee National Forest, which nobody expects.

The skyscraper was invented here in 1885, at ten storeys.

Eat

Italian beef, dipped

Drink

Goose Island

Listen

Wilco

Bird

Northern cardinal

Flower

Violet

Tree

White oak

Grows

Corn, Soybeans, Pumpkins

National parks

  • Indiana Dunes is next door

The actual state · 2025

Population
12,719,141
Land area
55,514 mi²
GDP per head
$94,503
Median household
$83,327
Joined
Joined 1818
Civil War
Union

Largest cities

  • 1Chicago2.72M
  • 2Aurora181K
  • 3Naperville153K
  • 4Joliet152K
  • 5Rockford147K

Race

  • White72.4%
  • Black14.5%
  • Asian7.0%

Hispanic or Latino19.9%

Counted across all races, so it overlaps the figures above.

1 claim

  1. First blood in Illinois: prairiestatepac, Tea Party, $15.

    “You budgeted with a crayon and mailed us the bill. Read the budget out loud”

    · $15