Illinois
Welcome to Illinois - known for corn, Chicago hotdogs and their Chicago style deep dish pizza (I think it's more of a casserole than a pizza but that's just my Jersey mindset).
Illinois has a whole town dedicated to World's Largest Objects! The town of Casey is always building something big and something new! So definitely check them out!
Fun facts:
- On Saint Patrick’s Day, they dye the Chicago River green. In the 1950s the green dye was used to help identify the source of leaky pipes. In 1962, the Plumbers Local Union just decided to dump 100 pounds of dye into the river for Saint Patrick’s Day. The river stayed green for a week! Since then it’s been a tradition to green up the river every Saint Patty’s Day. Luckily, environmentalists were eventually able to convince the city to adopt a more environmental friendly vegetable based dye instead.
- Illinois produces more nuclear energy than any other state in the country. Illinois has eleven operating commercial power reactors at six sites, which generates about half of the state’s electricity.
- Illinois invented the Twinkie, opened the first McDonalds, produces the most commercial pumpkins, opened the first Dairy Queen (Blizzards included), and founded John Deere agricultural and forestry machinery. All in an 18 year timeframe (excluding the pumpkin fact of course)!