Who we are, who we were

Who we are, who we were

Photographs by Fred Zwicky

Willard Helmuth runs an Amish construction company in the east central illinois town of Arthur. With the help of a volunteer corps, he constructs a 2,000-square-foot home in Hopedale, west of Bloomington, to be sold to benefit the hungry and homeless.

"A bad day of fishing is beter than a good day of work. This is a good day, " says ice fisherman Troy Lemon of Hopedale.
Ernie Paul of Marietta is a survivor. Though the west central Illinoisan hasn't had a steady job in the 20 years since he lost his leg in an accident, he has fed his family of seven by hunting, fishing and doing odd jobs.

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In Marietta, the Corner Station serves the function of the old country store. Locals gather on a slow summer morning to swap stories.

In Marietta, the Corner Station serves the function of the old country store. Locals gather on a slow summer morning to swap stories.

Stretching from the shores of Lake Michigan down to the banks of the Ohio, Illinois' terrain shifts from a barely rippled plain into deep forest and steep bluff. But together the state's 12 million people create a constantly evolving landscape. Encompassing those people, there is not — cannot be — one Illinois. We are urban and rural, young and old, professional and unemployed, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Methodist, Muslim. We are Illinois.

A woman sells tamales and hot chocolate outside a Mexican grocery in Chicago.

Baldo Violettas sells watermelons from the back of his pickup truck, which is parked in the heart of Chicago's Chinatown

Baldo Violettas sells watermelons from the back of his pickup truck, which is parked in the heart of Chicago's Chinatown.

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Illinoisans are speeding toward a new millennium, but vestiges of the not-so- distant past remind us where we've been and just how far we've traveled. To adapt a phrase from tourism promoters, it seems as though we've come a million miles from yesterday.

Outside the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, a tour bus sports the state's tourism campaign slogan

Outside the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, a tour bus sports the state's tourism campaign slogan: "Get a Million Miles from Monday."

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After being decommissioned ill 1976, The Mother Road— Old Route 66 — is just a reminder of the past.

Once upon a time, travelers driving from Bloomington to Chicago on old Route 66 could fill up at this station.

Among a Peoria antique store's old traffic signs and Coke ads hangs a campaign poster from another era. As a U.S. senator, Pekin native Everett Dirksen helped win passage of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

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Fashioned from fiberglass, the cows were unable even to graze. But some managed to move enough to play with children.

With a map of Illinois on its forehead, this cow keeps visitors to Chicago's museum campus in an Illinois state of mind.

1999 seemed to be the year of the cow in Illinois. Fancifully decorated heifers dotted the normally nonagrarian pastures of Chicago during this summer's public art exhibit Cows on Parade. But Illinois, given its agricultural traditions, has a long history with cows. Chicago, too. That legendary fire just might have had something to do with a cow.

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Thinking of itself as Milk Center of the World, Harvard erected Harmilda the cow in 1966. She continues to greet visitors to that northern Illinois town.

Thinking of itself as Milk Center of the World, Harvard erected Harmilda the cow in 1966. She continues to greet visitors to that northern Illinois town.

Gov. George Ryan had just signed a bill regulating large-scale livestock farms when he conducted this call from the livestock area of the Heart of Illinois Fair in Peoria.

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