Illinois Custom License Plates and Frames

Illinois is the 25th most
extensive and the 5th most populous of the 50 United States, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire
country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central
and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a broad
economic base. Illinois is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global
ports from the Great Lakes, via the St. Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean; as well as the Great Lakes to
the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has ranked as one of
the world's busiest airports. As the "most average state", Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether
both in social and cultural terms and politics.
In the 1810s, settlers
began arriving from Kentucky. In 1818 Illinois achieved statehood. The state's population originally grew from
south to north. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural
harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned
Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant
farmers from Germany and Sweden. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining
in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an
important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration established a large community of
African Americans in Chicago that created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.


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