Illinois is a state, but “the Illinois” only can describe the great river that runs 271 miles from its source to the Mississippi at Grafton.

It is not the nation’s longest river nor its widest. The slow moving Illinois is anything but wild – though she does have her moments. 

The Illinois would not even be navigable for most of her length much of the year were it not for dredging and the locks and dams. In fact, long before the dams and the runoff from cities and untold acreage covered by asphalt and concrete, there were places were a man could easily walk from one bank to another during the summer months.