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

Travel America, May-June, 2004 by Roberta Sotonoff

ILLINOIS

LAND OF LINCOLN

START IN CHICAGO, THE WINDY CITY. ITS WORLD-class museum include the Field Museum, Art Institute, Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, and Museum of Science and Industry. Extending a half mile into Lake Michigan, Navy Pier is a potpourri of promenades, entertainment stages, restaurants, shops, and attractions like the giant Fen-is wheel. Springfield, with the Abraham Lincoln Home, his tomb, and the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum, is truly the land of Lincoln. (The library opens this summer, followed in early 2005 by the high-tech museum with its totally immersive exhibits.) Nearby New Salem, a reconstructed log cabin village, looks much like it did when young Abe lived there. Lincoln College in the town of Lincoln displays items related to the 16th president and has the Heritage in Flight Museum at Logan County Airport. 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. A 48-foot tribute to Native Americans, a statue known as Black Hawk, towers over the Rock River at Lowden State Park in Oregon. The serene Anderson Japanese Gardens are in Rockford. Near Utica, canyons, bluffs, and waterfalls make Starved Rock one of the state's most beautiful parks. 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 park like Giant City and Garden of the Gods.

Contact: Illinois Bureau of Tourism, (800) 2-CONNECT; www.enjoyilli nois.com.

INDIANA

THE HOOSIER STATE

THE SOUTHERN INDIANA TOWN of Santa Claus offers Holiday World theme park and Splashin' Safari water park. Nearby Lincoln City has Abe Lincoln's boyhood farm home. New Harmony, a 19th century utopian community on the Wabash River, and the Ohio River town of Madison brim with nostalgia. French Lick, renowned for its artesian springs, is the home of historic French Lick Springs Resort and West Baden Springs Hotel. Ride a boat through Bluespring Caverns in south-central Bedford, then journey north to the gentle hills of Brown County State Park and Nashville's art galleries and shops. Columbus, boasting architectural designs by Eero Saarinen, Harry Weese, Richard Meier, and I.M. Pei, has been ranked the nation's sixth best architectural city by the American Institute of Architects. Downtown Indianapolis' Circle Centre is a major entertainment, shopping, and dining complex. Also see the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Hoosier Basketball Hall of Fame, and the Hall of Fame Museum at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You can take a shuttle-bus tour around the track. West of Indianapolis, the 32 covered bridges of Parke County evoke memories of simpler times. In northern Indiana, the simple life prevails in the Amish country of Elkhart County, while marshes, sand dunes, and sand canyons dot the shores of Lake Michigan at the Indiana Dunes.

Contact: Indiana Tourism Development Division, (888) ENJOY-IN; www.enjoyindiana.com.

IOWA

THE HAWKEYE STATE

IOWA HAS A LOT MORE THAN corn. At its western border is Dubuque's National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. Run the bases in Dyersville, where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed. Nearby is Herbert Hoover's birthplace in West Branch, the site of his presidential library, reconstructed childhood home, one-room schoolhouse, and Friends meeting house. Iowa, a European melting pot, has 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 and wooden shoes. The Amana Colonies are seven German villages founded as a commune in the mid-1800s. A National Historic Landmark, Amana gets raves for its Old World cooking, fresh breads, woolens, quilts, furniture, and clocks. The Winterset area has a touch of Hollywood with John Wayne's birthplace, a modest four-room home, and five 100-year-old covered bridges that were the inspiration for The Bridges of Madison County. Attractions in nearby Des Moines include the 23-carat gold-domed capitol, Des Moines Art Center, August's Iowa State Fair, and Living History Farms, a hands-on museum of rural life.

Contact: Iowa Division of Tourism, (888) 472-6035; www.traveliowa.com.

KANSAS

THE SUNFLOWER STATE

LOOK BEYOND THE COWS, CORN, and wheat, and explore the surprising diversity of Kansas' cities and towns. For Wizard of Oz lore, follow the Yellow Brick Road to Dorothy's Land of Oz in Liberal, a town that also boasts the Mid America Air Museum. Bison roam the plains at Finney Game Refuge in Garden City. Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp made Dodge City famous. The Old West comes alive at Boot Hill, the cemetery where cowboys are "buried with their boots on," and the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street Replica. In Hays, once the home of Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, and Wild Bill Hickock, get a lesson in frontier history at Fort Hays State Historic Site, which encompasses the restored buildings of one of the era's most prominent military posts. Wichita's open-air Old Cowtown Museum recreates the 1865-1880 era, and don't miss the Sedgwick County Zoo. Mosey on down the road to the Hopalong Cassidy Museum in Benton and rediscover one of TV's first cowboys via interactive displays and movies. In Salina, enjoy museums, art galleries, a winery, and a wildlife conservation center with endangered animals from around the world. In Atchison, learn about Amelia Earhart at her childhood home or at the Atchison Museum. Victorian architecture borders the streets of Lawrence, a university town with pro-Civil War history. The slavery issue that became known as "Bleeding Kansas" is chronicled at Topeka's Kansas Museum of History. Emporia, founding city of Veterans Day and home of All Veterans Memorial Park, draws families to the Emporia Zoo, which has a drive-through tour. In the Kansas City metro area, Olathe offers the state's largest outlet shopping mall and the ultimate in go-karting at Sadlers Indoor Racing. In the scenic Flint Hills of northeastern Kansas, wildflowers cover the grasslands at Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve, and a 19-mile hiking/biking Vail at Cimarron National Grasslands runs parallel to the Santa Fe Trail. The Flint Hills city of Manhattan offers an abundance of cultural and family-fun attractions.