131 articles
Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro, Kentucky, county seat of Daviess County on the Ohio River, formerly Yellow Banks and Owensborough; about 60,900 residents, a manufacturing and tourism hub known for barbecue and bourbon.
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria, Illinois: city on the Illinois River, county seat of Peoria County, oldest European settlement in Illinois (French outpost, 1691, Henri de Tonti). Whiskey capital until 1920; Caterpillar hub; 2020 population 113,150.
Pontiac, Michigan
Pontiac, Michigan: Oakland County seat founded 1818 by the Pontiac Company; major GM auto-making city, population 61,606 (2020), hit by plant closures by 2009 and now redeveloping downtown.
Quincy, Illinois
Quincy, Illinois, the "Gem City," is a Mississippi River city and seat of Adams County founded by John Wood in 1819, once Illinois' second-largest city, site of an 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate, with about 39,000 residents.
Racine, Wisconsin
Racine is a city of 77,816 people on Lake Michigan in southeastern Wisconsin, 22 miles south of Milwaukee, known for J.I. Case tractors and kringle.
Rock Island, Illinois
Rock Island, Illinois: county seat on the Mississippi in the Quad Cities; home of Rock Island Arsenal (est. 1862), Fort Armstrong, the 1856 first Mississippi bridge, and a Civil War Confederate prison camp; population 37,108 (2020).
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois: county seat of Winnebago County on the Rock River, about 90 miles northwest of Chicago. Third-largest Illinois city, 148,655 people (2020); former furniture and "Screw City" manufacturing center.
Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont, Illinois: a Cook County village incorporated in 1956 near O'Hare Airport, led by the Stephens family, known for the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, Allstate Arena, Parkway Bank Park, and Fashion Outlets of Chicago.
Royal Oak, Michigan
Royal Oak, Michigan: inner-ring Detroit suburb in Oakland County; named for an 1819 oak likened to Charles II's royal oak; city since 1921; about 57,600 residents, walkable downtown, Beaumont hospital, Detroit Zoo (1928).
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw, Michigan: county seat of Saginaw County in the Great Lakes Bay Region; council-manager city of about 44,000 (2020), former lumber and salt boomtown, now a health care and medical education center.
Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky, Ohio: county seat of Erie County on Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie; founded 1818 on the Firelands with a Masonic street grid; home of Cedar Point; population 25,095 (2020).
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, "the Soo," is Michigan's oldest city, founded 1668 by Father Jacques Marquette on the St. Marys River. Home of the world's busiest Soo Locks, twin of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario; 2020 population 13,337.
Schaumburg, Illinois
Schaumburg, Illinois: a village about 25 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop, incorporated March 7, 1956, transformed from a German farming township into a major suburban business hub anchored by Woodfield Mall (1971), with 78,723 residents at the 2020 census.
Shaker Heights, Ohio
Shaker Heights, Ohio: a planned Cleveland suburb founded by the Van Sweringen brothers on former North Union Shaker land, incorporated 1912, known for voluntary school integration and persistent achievement-gap debates.
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Sheboygan, Wisconsin: Lake Michigan county-seat city, incorporated as a village in 1846 and Wisconsin's sixth city in 1853; 49,929 residents in 2020, known as the 'Malibu of the Midwest.'
Skokie, Illinois
Skokie, Illinois, a Cook County village of about 67,000 near Chicago, incorporated as Niles Centre in 1888, known for the 1977 Nazi march controversy, the Illinois Holocaust Museum, and its diverse population.
South Bend, Indiana
South Bend, Indiana: city on the St. Joseph River, county seat of St. Joseph County, home of Notre Dame and the Studebaker Corporation (wagons from 1852, autos 1902–1963); population about 103,000.
Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan is an inner-ring Detroit suburb in Oakland County, incorporated April 28, 1958, with about 76,000 residents, over 27 million square feet of office space, and 774 acres of park land.
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.
Springfield, Ohio
Springfield, Ohio, county seat of Clark County between Dayton and Columbus, founded 1801, once the 'Champion City' of agricultural machinery, now a city of about 58,000 known for its Haitian community and the 2024-2026 TPS controversy.
Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights, Michigan: fourth-largest Michigan city (134,346 in 2020), in Macomb County near Detroit. Incorporated July 1, 1968 from Sterling Township; council-manager government; notable for Holcombe Beach Paleo-Indian site and 28% foreign-born residents.
Steubenville, Ohio
Steubenville, Ohio: Jefferson County seat on the Ohio River, founded 1797 and named for Fort Steuben; former steel town of 17,922 (2025 est.), home to Franciscan University.
Tecumseh, Michigan
Tecumseh, Michigan, a small city in Lenawee County founded in 1824 by Musgrove Evans and named for the Shawnee chief Tecumseh; 2020 population 8,680 on 5.65 square miles.
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.
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio (the Glass City) is Ohio's fourth largest city, a Lake Erie port on the Maumee River with about 263,000 residents, a glass and automotive manufacturing history, and a 300,000-resident goal for 2045.
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City, Michigan: city in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties on Grand Traverse Bay, population 15,678 (2020), hub of a 153,448-person micropolitan area, former lumber town turned cherry and tourism center.
Troy, Michigan
Troy, Michigan is an Oakland County city north of Detroit, settled in the 1820s and incorporated in 1955. Population 87,294 (2020); major business hub with 6,000+ businesses, high incomes, and the Troy Historic Village.
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.
Warren, Michigan
Warren, Michigan: third-largest Michigan city in Macomb County, population 139,387 (2020), incorporated 1957, home of the 710-acre GM Global Technical Center and Army TACOM.
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.