Midwest focus: travel America highlights top tourist attractions in 10 states

Travel America, May-June, 2002 by Roberta Sotonoff

ILLINOIS

LAND OF LINCOLN

Start in Chicago, the Windy City. Its world-class museums include the Field Museum, Art Institute, Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and Museum of Science and Industry. Extending over a half mile into Lake Michigan, Navy Pier is a potpourri of parks, promenades, entertainment stages, restaurants, shops, and attractions like the giant Ferris wheel. Springfield, with the Old State Capitol, Abraham Lincoln Home, and his final resting place at Oak Ridge Cemetery, is truly the land of Lincoln. Nearby New Salem, a reconstructed log cabin village, looks much like it did when young Abe lived there. Another U.S. president, Ulysses S. Grant, once lived in the hilly northwest Illinois town of Galena, known for its craft and antique shops, plus cozy bed and breakfasts. The 48-foot tribute to Native Americans, known as Black

Hawk, towers over the Rock River at Lowden State Park in Oregon. Near Utica, canyons, bluffs, and waterfalls make Starved Rock one of the state's most beautiful parks. Down in southern Illinois, between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, diverse vegetation, wildlife, and outdoor recreation thrive in the rough, unglaciated areas of Shawnee National Forest. Hiking among unusual rock formations is popular in state parks like Giant City and Garden of the Gods.

INDIANA

THE HOOSIER STATE

History lives in southern Indiana towns. Lincoln City has restored Abe Lincoln's boyhood farm home. The river towns of New Harmony, a 19th century Utopian community, and Madison, preserved because residents were too poor to renovate it, brim with nostalgia. Santa Claus postmarks and the world's oldest theme park, Holiday World, are in the town of Santa Claus. Drive north to the gentle hills of Brown County State Park to hike or to browse Nashville's art galleries and shops. In downtown Indianapolis, Circle Centre is a huge entertainment, shopping, and dining complex. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest such museum. The Hall of Fame Museum at Indianapolis Motor Speedway features some of the Indy 500's winning cars. When the track is idle, visitors can take a spin around the track on a mini-shuttle. Conner Prairie, a living history museum in nearby Noblesville, is a pioneer village where the year is always 1836. West of Indianapolis are the 32 covered bridges of Parke County, which celebrates them each October with its 10-day Covered Bridge Festival, one of the Midwest's best fall events. Simple life prevails in the Amish country of northern Elkhart County, while marshes, sand dunes, and sand canyons dot the shores of Lake Michigan at the Indiana Dunes.

IOWA

THE HAWKEYE STATE

Iowa is more

than a big field of corn. Run the bases at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, where the Kevin Costner movie was filmed. The birthplace of President Herbert Hoover is in nearby West Branch. Tour the presidential library, his reconstructed home complete with outhouse, the one-room schoolhouse, and the Friends meeting house. European attractions abound in Iowa's ethnic melting pot. See the Vesterheim

Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, and the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids. The Dutch colony of Pella is not only famous for its windows, but for tulips, pastries, and crafts. The Amana Colonies, another popular ethnic destination, are actually seven German villages that were founded as a commune in the mid-1800s. This National Historic Landmark gets raves not only for its Old World cooking and fresh breads but also for woolens, quilts, furniture, and clocks. The Winterset area has a touch of Hollywood with John Wayne's birthplace, a modest four-room home; Francesca's House from the movie The Bridges of Madison County; and the six 100-year-old bridges themselves. Nearby is Des Moines with its 23-carat, gold-domed Capitol, where you will find a scale model of the battleship Iowa and a new World War II memorial. From May through October, Living History Farms, an open-air agricultural museum, features rural life activities from 1700 to the early 20th century.

KANSAS

THE SUNFLOWER STATE

Look beyond the multitude of cows, corn, wheat, and sunflowers, and explore Kansas' cities and towns. Fine examples of Victorian, Italianate, and stone vernacular architecture grace the streets of Old West Lawrence in Lawrence. Topeka, the state capital, played a large role in the prelude to the Civil War. Its history as a stop in the Underground Railroad and the heated slavery issue that became known as "Bleeding Kansas" is chronicled at the Kansas Museum of History. Dodge City is one of the nation's most famous cowboy towns. Its lawlessness and lawmen, like Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Charlie Basset, are legendary. All those days come alive at Boot Hill, the cemetery where cowboys were "buried with their boots on," and the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street Replica. Original wagon ruts from the legendary Santa Fe Trail are still visible west of town. Wichita's 17-acre, open-air Old Cow-town Museum recreates the 1865-1880 era of Wichita and Sedgwick County. Old Town Marketplace, a renovated entertainment district, overflows with turn-of-the-century charm. Bison still roam at the Finney Game Refuge in Garden City. In the scenic Flint Hills, wildflowers cover the grasslands of Tallgrass Prairie Natural Reserve, and a 19-mile hiking and biking trail, part of Cimarron National Grasslands, runs parallel to the Santa Fe Trail.