Tales and trails of Illinois / Stu Fliege.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fliege, Stu, 1939-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Local history.

History.

Illinois--History--Anecdotes.

Illinois.

Illinois--History, Local--Anecdotes.

Illinois--Biography--Anecdotes.

Genre:

Biographies.

Anecdotes.

Physical Description:

xiii, 236 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2002]

Summary:

Based on a collection of fifty-two vignettes of Illinois history originally published as weekly columns in newspapers and revised for publication in book form, Tales and Trails of Illinois presents little-known episodes and adds perspective to tales of the state's varied past. Pairing readable commentary with striking description and detail, the book is a useful compendium of Illinois heritage in an accessible and entertaining format. Stu Fliege highlights historical events, such as the Herrin Massacre and Chicago's Iroquois Theatre fire, and covers the diverse terrain of Illinois's natural and constructed wonders, from Lusk Creek Canyon to Robert Allerton Park. Readers will meet a colorful cast of characters including pioneers, squatters, miners, gangsters, and utopian leaders. They'll travel back in time to when salt production was the state's main industry and learn of the Illinois ingenuity that spawned inventions including barbed wire, the steel plow, and the Ferris wheel. From Oquawka's elephant memorial to Murphysboro's mysterious mud monster, the book also offers quirky facts and spooky stories that aren't found in the average history book. Liberally illustrated and clearly written, Tales and Trails of Illinois is a helpful learning tool for Illinoisans of all ages, perfect for families, history buffs, libraries, and the classroom.

Contents:

Tower Rock, ageless landmark of the Mississippi

Salt mines in Illinois, an important early industry

The Great Sauk Trail across northern Illinois

Europeans come to Illinois : the Jolliet and the Marquette Expedition

A grisly reputation : John Moredock, Indian slayer

The Sucker State and mining Galena at Galena

The last trails of Chief Ducoigne and his Kaskaskia

Across Illinois with the famed birdwatcher John James Audubon

"Black diamonds" along the Big Muddy : Illinois' first coal mine

Waiting for the Second Coming : the Rappites Harmonie

A "perfect society" experiment : Robert Owen's New Harmony

The midnight ride of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard

Stillman's run : a debacle of the Black Hawk War

Illinois martyr to freedom of the press : Elijah Parish Lovejoy

The singing plow that "scoured" : John Deere and Company

A trail of tears across southern Illinois : a Cherokee tragedy

James Semple's trackless train : the prairie car

Shaping the state : the Illinois and Michigan Canal

A French quest for Utopia in Illinois : the Icarians

Up, up, and away : two kids in a runaway balloon

An angelic hero of the Civil War : ary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke

Fencing the west : De Kalb and its barbed wire

James Buchanan Eads and his wonderful bridge

Elixers in Illinois : mineral springs, baths and resorts

Who threw the bomb? : the Haymarket Riot

Death stalks the rails : the Chatsworth train wreck

Quincy's pioneer in the sky : Thomas Scott Baldwin

A shortcut to the Mississippi : the Hennepin Canal

Illinois's most heinous murderer : Herman W. Mudgett

Chicago's master boodlers : Michael "Hinky Dink" Kenna and "Bathhouse" John Couglin

Of Ferris wheels and Jacksonville's Eli Bridge Company

"General" Alexander Bradley's marches on the coalfields

The man who electrified Illinois : Samuel Insull

John Alexander Dowie's Utopia : Zion, Illinois

"The most dangerous woman in America" : Mary Harris "Mother" Jones

Chicago's new Iroquois Theatre becomes a fiery death trap

A big lake, a small town, and William Patrick Rend

Illinois's worst coal mine disaster : the Cherry Mine fire

Rock River Valley, Lorado Taft and the Black Hawk statue

Calbraith Perry Rogers and the Vin Fiz Flyer cross Illinois

World War I hysteria : the Prager hanging

"Butchery

wrought in madness" : the 1922 Herrin Massacre

The minister served arsenic : Ina's great scandal

Nature wreaks devastation : the 1925 Tri-State Tornado

Illinois's last hanging : the gangster Charley Birger

The nuclear age dawns in a Chicago squash court

Illinois's beautiful gorge : Lusk Creek Canyon

The Sun Singer and Robert Allerton's exotic park

Oquawka : the town that immortalized an elephant

Monsters and creatures of the Big Muddy River

An Illinois ecological Eden : LaRue Swamp-Pine Hills area

The Koster site : "Amerindians" and Dr. Stuart Struever.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0252027760

0252070852

OCLC:

48817252