Illinois's Most Historic Towns

Illinois's history is woven through the Lincoln legacy, the Chicago Fire, Native American mound cultures, and the Gateway to the West river trade.

Springfield
Lincoln's city — Abraham Lincoln lived in Springfield from 1837 (when he arrived as a lawyer) to 1861 (when he left for Washington as President-elect). The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Lincoln's Home National Historic Site (the only home Lincoln ever owned, a two-story 1844 house open for tours), the Old State Capitol (where Lincoln delivered the "House Divided" speech), and Lincoln's Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery (where Lincoln is buried with his wife and three sons) make Springfield the preeminent Lincoln heritage destination in the US. The Dana-Thomas House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1902) is also here.

Galena
An 1850s lead mining and river trade city of extraordinary preservation — 85% of Galena's buildings predate 1870. The town sits in a valley below blufftop neighborhoods of Italianate and Greek Revival mansions built by lead mining wealth. Ulysses S. Grant's house (1860 Italianate), the Old Market House (1845), and the DeSoto House Hotel (1855, where Lincoln spoke from the balcony in 1856) are all preserved. Galena predates Chicago; it was for a time the most important city in Illinois.

Nauvoo
On the Mississippi — the city built by Joseph Smith and the early Latter-day Saints (1839–1846), then a center of French Icarian utopian communists (1849–1860), then a German immigrant wine-making community. Nauvoo has restored LDS and Icarian buildings. The Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (rebuilt 2002) is a significant pilgrimage destination.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (Collinsville)
Near St. Louis — the largest pre-Columbian city north of Mexico, with a population of 10,000–20,000 at its peak (ca. 1100 CE). Monks Mound (the largest prehistoric earthwork in North America — 100 feet high, 1,000 feet long) dominates the site. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.