70 articles
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield, Illinois: state capital and Sangamon County seat, population 114,394 (2020). Abraham Lincoln's home 1837–1861; Lincoln Home National Historic Site, presidential museum, Land of Lincoln tourism.
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, on the Wabash River, population about 58,400. Known for Indiana State University, Rose-Hulman, the 2024 Churchill Downs casino, and the Entek $1.5B battery plant.
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois: county seat of Champaign County, founded 1833, population about 39,000, twin city of Champaign and home of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a land-grant university established there in 1867.
Waukegan, Illinois
Waukegan, Illinois: Lake County county seat on Lake Michigan between Chicago and Milwaukee, incorporated 1859, formerly Little Fort; 2020 population 89,321, deep-water port, industrial history, Ray Bradbury's hometown.
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha, Wisconsin: county-seat city west of Milwaukee, founded 1834 as Prairieville, population about 71,000, known for 19th-century mineral-spring resorts and its 8.2-million-gallon-per-day Lake Michigan water diversion begun in 2023.
Wausau, Wisconsin
Wausau, also known as Wausau, WI, is the county seat of Marathon County, Wisconsin, on the Wisconsin River, with a population of about 40,000 in 2025.
West Lafayette, Indiana
West Lafayette, Indiana: Tippecanoe County city across the Wabash River from Lafayette, home of Purdue University (founded 1869). 2020 population 44,595; renamed from Chauncey in 1888; SK Hynix $3.87 billion plant announced 2024.
Wilmette, Illinois
Wilmette is a village in Cook County, Illinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan north of Chicago, one of the North Shore suburbs, named for the Ouilmette family, with a 2020 population of 28,170.
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Dells, once named Kilbourn, is a city in south-central Wisconsin on the Wisconsin River, known as the Waterpark Capital of the World with about 3,383 residents.
Zion, Illinois
Zion (formerly Zion City), Lake County, Illinois: a theocratic utopian city founded in 1900 by faith healer John Alexander Dowie, ruled by Wilbur Glenn Voliva until the mid-1930s, later home to shuttered nuclear plants; 2020 population 24,655.