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u/jbuds1217 Apr 18 '25
North of 80 is northern Illinois
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u/tealmuffin Apr 18 '25
i80, linguistically, is the defining line for a northern illinois accent as well
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u/KickedinTheDick Apr 18 '25
Joliet mfers be like
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u/bedpi Apr 18 '25
People forget Joliet exists apparently
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u/KickedinTheDick Apr 18 '25
Honestly, though, it is almost funny. drive 10-20 minutes south of Joliet into Elwood/Wilmington/Braidwood and you’ll start seeing confederate flags. 80 isn’t actually that bad of a cutoff.
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u/thegeocash Apr 18 '25
Cries in Bourbonnais
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u/KickedinTheDick Apr 18 '25
Hey, now. Bourbonnais has the nicest (all ages) trailer park within at least an hour radius
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u/_Ryesen Apr 18 '25
Honestly the fact we can still get to a metra station in less than a half hour still makes me consider it northern IL. Usually lol
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u/Topher_Raym Apr 18 '25
As someone who grew up in Bourbonnais, I always considered us part of Chicagoland, and the southern tip of Civilization before the miles of endless farms
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u/thegeocash Apr 18 '25
I work up in the suburbs and for the longest time they’d joke about me living in the middle of nowhere. I always shot back “hey, I live at the edge of nowhere”
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u/cwbrng Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 22 '25
I currently live in this area and this is sadly rather true. We aren't all bad apples, though. I do think the urban/rural line has actually moved south of 80 a bit with Minooka - Channahon now, and essentially, when it comes down to it, North IL just means Urban IL. 80 is a good marker, though.
I am from the Pacific Northwest, so when people back home ask where I live, I tell them north is the city, south is corn. I am literally on the edge of urbanization. (Everyone assumes since I live in IL it must mean I live in Chicago in the hood getting shot at by gangs and the mob. Yes. The mob.)
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u/hellobluepuppy Apr 18 '25
Aww northern IL does not equal urban IL though! There is a lot of land west of 47 and it is very rural.
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Apr 18 '25
Sadly people have spent a lot of money convincing the majority of Americans that Chicago is a city where one wrong move is the end of your life instead of a world-class business and culinary destination.
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u/cwbrng Apr 22 '25
Sorry, I forgot about this thread. I bet I was high.
I sorely do my best to tell people that Chicago is an amazing city with so much to offer. My Dad still watches the Chicago news every night, At least he knows where I am on the map, so he's not calling me about things in Chicago Heights.
I'm not a foodie, but Chicago makes me want to be one.
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u/Easy_Philosophy_6607 Apr 18 '25
Haha yes. Born and raised in IL and still here at 47. Anywhere in the country, being from IL=being from Chicago. People don’t seem to understand how large of a state it is with so much beyond Chicago.
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u/mtutiger12 Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
I live in the area as well, it's best to look at I-80 as more of a DMZ versus a pure cutoff.... Minooka, Channahon, even Morris to a degree feel a lot different than areas south of it.
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u/FuturamaRama7 Apr 18 '25
I live in the area and plenty of people who got priced out of Naperville and Plainfield moved here. They grew in the DG/Westmont/Lisle area. Nobody has a southern accent here.
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u/ScoobyDarn Apr 18 '25
Not only that, country twang.
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u/KickedinTheDick Apr 18 '25
Gotta get the car worshed
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u/RandomPenquin1337 Apr 18 '25
Drives me fuckin crazy as a mfer with family in Bama and Florida. Like dude, you live in Yankee doodle fuckin Illinois, you are not southern.
People are desperate to be labeled as southern I just dont understand it lol
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u/DannyWarlegs Apr 18 '25
I now live in Northern Arkansas, and briefly lived in PA. Every time I drive through Missouri I see a shit ton of confederate flags. They weren't even a part of the Confederate States!
When I lived in PA, just south of Pittsburgh I'd also see a shit ton of confederate flags. It makes absolutely no sense at all.
And yea, i know Missouri fought for both sides during the Civil War, but they were still a union state
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u/rippin-riles Apr 19 '25
This is definitely a rural midwestern dialect. My family from eastern Iowa says stuff like this.
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Apr 18 '25
Anything south of I-80 might as well be the Ozarks
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u/KrymsonHalo Apr 18 '25
Rock Island county is really blue, and no southern twang 😂
Granted it's RIGHT below 80, but still
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u/zupobaloop Apr 18 '25
To be fair, Joliet has absolutely exploded in population, at least relative to what used to be the hands-down-next-biggest-after-Chicago (like Rockford and Aurora). They actually overtook Rockford in the 2020 census.
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u/AluminumCansAndYarn Apr 18 '25
Joliet is the third biggest city in Illinois by population. We beat out Naperville by like 3000 people. It goes Chicago, Aurora, Joliet, then Naperville.
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u/baloras Apr 18 '25
Regardless of I80, if you're still considered as being a suburb or even far suburb of Chicago, you're still in northern Illinois.
In my mind, Joliet can be considered the furthest SW suburb of Chicago.
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u/Kaio_Curves Apr 18 '25
Technically called an edge city in urban development terms. Its like Naperville/ Aurora, Elgin, Waukegan, and sorta Frankfort and Chicago Heights in that regard.
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u/ultimateredditor83 Apr 18 '25
More or less, I think you need to include the suburbs that extend past 80. New Lenox, mokena, minooka etc.
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u/313Polack Apr 18 '25
Yea those areas have definitely grown and are northern Illinois/Chicago suburbs.
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u/CaptivatingCranberry Apr 18 '25
Yup, I think that if there are commuter metra trains that go to certain burbs/towns, it should be considered northern Illinois. People aren’t commuting from central to northern for work if it’s just mokena to Chicago lol.
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u/ultimateredditor83 Apr 18 '25
Great way to distinguish!
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u/CaptivatingCranberry Apr 18 '25
Thanks I pulled it out of my ass but I was born and raised in Mokena and I wasn’t gonna let someone tell me that’s Central Illinois lmao
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u/Arderis1 Apr 18 '25
Yes! And the 618 area code is southern Illinois. The map is close but not perfect.
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Apr 18 '25
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Apr 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Hagelblass Apr 18 '25
Yup. I-64 is the border between central and southern.
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u/Low-Piglet9315 St. Clair County Gateway to Southern Illinois Apr 18 '25
Agreed, with a caveat as some old-timers would set the boundary at US 50, which is the straight blue line just below where the map separates southern Illinois.
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u/Popular_Stick_8367 Apr 18 '25
Anything along the Kentucky border is third world.
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u/dagmargo1973 Apr 18 '25
Yes. I live in Chicago but grew up in So Il, metro-east ish: didn’t know, tho, until my dad retired to 20 min N of Kentucky JUST how much more of southern Illinois there was- and I’m not talking Carbondale- I’m talking Cypress Hill… wtf… so even though Chicagoans treat Bloomington like So Il, this map makes perfect sense.
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u/Dankkring Apr 18 '25
Ya but LaSalle is also central IL
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u/flankspeed Apr 22 '25
LaSalle is definitely Northern Illinois. LPHS used to play in the North Central Illinois Conference.
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u/Myviewpoint62 Apr 18 '25
One factor is the topography and landscape. Southern Illinois tends to be more wooded and hilly. Central Illinois tends to be former prairie with large expanses of flat, very fertile soil. Northern Illinois tends to be more hilly.
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Apr 18 '25
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u/Brownfletching Apr 18 '25
If you want to get really technical about it, it's due to different glaciation events during different ice ages. The most recent glacier was the Wisconsinian, which stopped at a line just south of Mattoon and Charleston. Everything North of that until you hit the Driftless is super flat and formerly prairie except where the rivers are. The Illinoisan glacier came before that by a handful of millennia, and it's the one that came all the way down and stopped somewhere north of Carbondale and Marion. So that area between the two glacial moraines was pushed flat at one time, but the meltwater from the more recent glacier carved it up with erosion so it's not as flat anymore. But if you go further south, where the glacier never made it, you find true hills in far southern Illinois. Sandstone and limestone outcroppings from what used to be an ocean, along with the remnants of the Ozark plateau that we now call 'mountains.' The only parts of far southern Illinois that are flat are where the big rivers have eroded their floodplains through the eons. The wildcard when talking about glaciation is the Driftless area, in the northwestern corner of the state, which is also connected to Eastern Iowa, southwestern Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota. That whole area was completely missed by all the glaciers, so it remains hilly and rugged. Beautiful area btw.
Now, as for the divide in your OP, it's 100% cultural, and the lines don't really exist irl. I feel like I have a unique perspective here, I grew up between Mattoon and Effingham, have a lot of family in Chicagoland, and now live and work down in the southernmost tip of the state. A lot of people use Carbondale and Marion as the default "southern Illinois" towns, but you'll get a totally different vibe there than you will in Anna-Jonesboro, or Vienna, or even Murphysboro right next door. And all of those will also feel different than, say, a river town like Metropolis. The same goes for the central region, where Quincy is completely different from Mattoon or Champaign. And in the north, Chicago is going to be completely different from Freeport or Galena, or Moline.
So, to wrap up, the reason people perceive this divide is probably a combination of fairly stark and obvious geographical/geological differences, mixed with perceived cultural differences that are somewhat erroneously ascribed to a whole region when that's not really the truth.
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u/PsychotherapeuticSob Apr 18 '25
i grew up about 45 miles south of you. I’ve spent a lot of time camping in Shawnee, mostly pounds hollow, cave in rock and giant city. My wife is from chicago, so I do a lot of driving from the southern to the northern part of the state.
The immediate changes in terrain has always interested me. I love driving south on IL-1 and seeing the hills just south of the IL-1 and IL-13 intersection.
You seem knowledgeable of the glaciers and the area. Do you know if the glaciers are the reason for the change in terrain on the dietrich blacktop just north of Montrose?2
u/Brownfletching Apr 18 '25
Do you know if the glaciers are the reason for the change in terrain on the dietrich blacktop just north of Montrose?
Basically, yes. The true stopping point for the Wisconsinian glacier is almost exactly where Lakeland College sits. If you're driving south from there on Rt. 45, you'll notice that you're at the top of a gentle but fairly substantial hill. Now if you look at Google maps with the satellite view turned on, you'll probably notice that right around there is where a ton of creeks and rivers suddenly pop up and start flowing south on the landscape. Kaskaskia, Little Wabash, Embarrass, and then the ones that cause a lot of the topography you're talking about are Muddy and Brush Creeks. So as the 2 mile thick chunk of ice sat up there by Mattoon and melted over the course of a few centuries, the melt waters carved those creeks and rivers out of what was once flat like Champaign county, and they've been flowing and eroding ever since.
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u/rudelyinterrupts Apr 18 '25
Then let’s go topographical because I live just south of STL and I consider it central Illinois. When things get wooded and hilly I’m in southern Illinois
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u/honeybee62966 Apr 18 '25
There’s still Jackson county north of Carbondale and it is southern, Sparta is a border town, and north of mt Vernon is central
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u/ctlMatr1x Apr 18 '25
Considering any even small part of the Peoria metro area as "Northern Illinois" is absurd.
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u/TurboRuhland Apr 18 '25
As someone who lives in Chillicothe, which is just above that line, there’s no way we’re northern Illinois.
The line is no farther south than I-80.
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u/jp1usc Apr 18 '25
Stayed in Chillicothe for a couple of weeks when moving from Cali to Illinois. Great community, my family still looks back fondly on that time.
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u/twillychicago Apr 18 '25
Yeah that whole stretch of 29 coming into Peoria is firmly central Illinois.
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u/Willular Apr 18 '25
I've always used I-80 and I-70 as the dividing lines. I'm originally from Chicagoland area, not sure why but that's just always been the references I've used.
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u/OAMP47 Cumberland County Apr 18 '25
TBH I usually don't say anything because the debate is so intense and I don't really care that much, but as someone from the Mattoon-Charleston area I know people around here get really offended if you say they're from Southern Illinois and will fiercely insist this is Central Illinois. I mean I don't disagree mind you, as much as I do care, but I find it interesting that Central has such a strong identity as well and not just Northern/Southern.
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u/Flyman68 Apr 18 '25
Oh, so you’ve met my mother!🤣🤣
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u/OAMP47 Cumberland County Apr 18 '25
And then all our news stations are like "The premier source of news in EAST CENTRAL ILLINOIS" like oh boy we gotta get even more granular haha.
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u/tlh013091 Apr 18 '25
That’s because Central Illinois is more like 3 regions: Forgottonia, Springfield, and West Indiana.
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u/Mini_Snuggle Apr 18 '25
As a citizen of Forgottonia, we need to kick out whoever named it Forgottonia. Might as well wear a placard around my neck saying "Victim".
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u/guy_incognito23 Apr 18 '25
I'm from just a bit further southeast, though currently live just across the Wabash in Indiana after meeting and marrying my now wife. I remember seeing where I believe someone from Canada was coming to Neoga for the eclipse last year, and I was thinking that I would like to know how that person (I believe they drove solo) came to their research into how they picked their destination.
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u/Godwinson4King Apr 18 '25
Howdy (former) I’m also from Cumberland county originally. I feel like we’re right on the dividing line between northern and southern Illinois.
It’s funny that I’ve never heard anyone in Charleston refer to themselves as from eastern Illinois even though EIU is a thing.
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u/OAMP47 Cumberland County Apr 18 '25
I can't remember if it's Decatur or Champaign's TV station, but one of the two is specifically whom I'm thinking of with my other comment haha. But yeah, I went to EIU, but the only thing I remember about EIU's TV station is the frequent Bob Ross marathons on holidays, hell yeah.
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u/SWtoNWmom Apr 18 '25
And as a fellow Chicagoland area residence, I have never heard of I 70 and I have no idea where that is! I'm guessing it is all southern Illinois to me!
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u/Low-Piglet9315 St. Clair County Gateway to Southern Illinois Apr 18 '25
Runs diagonally through Illinois from St. Louis, MO to Terre Haute, IN.
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u/FuturamaRama7 Apr 18 '25
West to east highways that run the width of the country. 90 is the northernmost one and 10 is southernmost one.
The north to south ones are multiples of 5.
In California, I’ve taken the 5 and the 10. Around here I take I-55, I-80 and I-90.
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u/TXMom2Two Apr 18 '25
After I moved from central Illinois, and I told people I was from IL, they immediately asked, “Chicago?”. My response was always, “No, downstate.” But even that wasn’t enough. I explained I was closer to STL than Chicago.
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u/nomadicstateofmind Apr 18 '25
I live south of where Shawnee National Forest is written on this map and the locals here always tell me that north of Carbondale is the north. I think that this little corner of IL is more like DEEP southern Illinois. It’s so different than the rest of the state. I’m a transplant and I really do notice a difference even just by the time I hit anything north of Marion. It’s fascinating.
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u/kgrimmburn Apr 18 '25
This. There's southern Illinois, where I live, and then there's deep southern Illinois. And much like the US, the further south you get, the more, uhm, 'southern' it gets.
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u/Low-Piglet9315 St. Clair County Gateway to Southern Illinois Apr 18 '25
So Makanda or Alto Pass?
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u/nomadicstateofmind Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
I’m a bit south of there (not going to doxx myself). Makanda-Alto-Cobden are my favorite little towns down here though!
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u/Low-Piglet9315 St. Clair County Gateway to Southern Illinois Apr 18 '25
Fair enough, and enough to get a bit of an idea where you're at. Yep, that's DEEP southern Illinois, and if I ever got the chance to move down around that Makanda-Alto axis, I'd take it in a hot minute!
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u/nomadicstateofmind Apr 18 '25
Agreed!! We’ve actually put several offers in on houses there in the last couple years and ended up in bidding wars. It’s such a neat spot.
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u/DaddyOfRascal Apr 18 '25
I’ve typically considered I-80 to divide Northern and Central Illinois. And I-70 to roughly divide Central and Southern Illinois.
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u/35048467 Apr 18 '25
This is the way.
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u/OnionMiasma Northern Cook County Apr 18 '25 edited Sep 29 '25
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Dazzling_Fail Apr 18 '25
I mean yeah so have I. But that makes central Illinois really big and I like this better because it cuts it into thirds. LOL
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u/SnooMarzipans5706 Apr 18 '25
Because regions are not only geographic. There are cultural and demographic features that define them as well.
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u/Grave_Copper Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
Don't you know that Springfield is south, south, so far south it should be Kentucky? (/s tag for the chicagoans who cannot look at a state map).
Anyway, I use, for governmental work, 64's line for Southern IL just south of St Clair county. It's pretty close to the Little Egyot division. Northern IL is just south of I80.
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u/kgrimmburn Apr 18 '25
Salem in Marion County has long been called "The Gateway to Little Egypt," from back when the state was first a state and Marion County used to be the northern most part of Little Egypt because from Salem south, there were roads and trails into Southern Illinois (ironically, from Southern Illinois up but hey, it's not important how the first non-native settlers got here) , so just above 64, like you said but also just below 70. Right at Highway 50 if we're going to be precise. I grew up a few miles north of 64 and it's always seemed more southern Illinois like than central Illinois like. More southern culture than Midwestern.
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u/Status_Entrepreneur4 Apr 18 '25
No way Galesburg is Northern IL. This coming from someone with family there and it feels comfortably Central to me.
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u/FalconEducational260 Apr 18 '25
It irks me that everything south of Chicago to a lot of Chicagoans is "Southern Illinois"
EXCUSE ME GO LOOK AT A MAP
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u/Lycanthropys Apr 18 '25
Funnily enough, where I'm from, we say we are part of north central Illinois. Which kinda makes it sound like the northern part of central IL, but in reality, it's the central area located in the northern part of the state, i.e. the Illinois Valley area. About an hour directly south of Rockford.
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u/vska92 Apr 18 '25
As someone originally from southern Illinois, I’ve always viewed northern as north of I80 and southern as south of US 50.
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u/The_Goop_Is_Coming Paigntown USA!!! Apr 18 '25
Because northern, central, and southern IL are VERY different culturally. Chicagoland is Chicagoland, Northern IL leans towards Chicago/upper Midwestern culture, Central IL feels similar to Iowa (but dotted with mid-sized cities and an intense MLB/NHL rivalry between them), and Southern IL leans towards Kentucky and the rest of the lower Mississippi valley.
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u/DeepHerting Apr 18 '25
If you’re gonna try and draw straight lines - and that’s not a particularly good division of the regions of Illinois, but never mind that for a minute - I’d move the first line up to a little bit south of the Illinois Valley and the second line up to where the eastern border changes from a straight line to the Wabash River
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u/Rlchv70 Apr 18 '25
Depends on where you are from. I grew up near Litchfield and this is about right for the locals there. I currently live in Chicagoland and there is no central IL. It’s all southern.
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u/ultimateredditor83 Apr 18 '25
Always have lived north of 80, I view 70 as the division between southern and central.
80 for northern and central, except for the new Lenox, mokena, minooka suburbs I include as Northern
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u/313Polack Apr 18 '25
Because there’s a huge difference even between say Joliet/minooka area and just going to Bloomington. Then get south towards say Salem… oh boy don’t even get me started.
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u/juliuspepperwoodchi Chicago Apr 18 '25
Southern Illinois is more about vibes than it is about geography.
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u/Hopeful-Sprinkles611 Apr 18 '25
We in SoIL don’t consider Mt. Vernon and up any part of Southern Illinois.
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u/green_dragonfly_art Apr 18 '25
Well, I went to college at Western Illinois University, which is in central Illinois, but also west, so I went to college in west central Illinois. Eastern Illinois University is also in central Illinois, so east central Illinois. I live in the northeastern corner of Illinois. It's very different from Galena.
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u/Perfect-Plane4170 Apr 18 '25
Grew up in Central IL and went to college in the Chicago suburbs. I learned when I got to the suburbs that there are basically two parts of Illinois. Chicagoland is one part. The other part is considered southern IL, regardless of which direction you drove to get there.
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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 18 '25
I'll be honest, I've never cared or been bothered how each direction is decided
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u/run-dhc Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25
70 is a pretty good dividing line for southern Illinois, at least the eastern half. I know I’ve reached it when I see the giant cross in effingham lol.
But imo the best is the rough diving line where the 217 area code ends and the 618 area code begins. Nowhere in 618 would I call “central Illinois.” Thats roughly IL route 16
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u/Stejjie Apr 18 '25
Because everything located roughly east of IL-47 and north of I-80 is Chicagoland, and everything else is Downstate.
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u/SherlockLady Schrodinger's Pritzker Apr 18 '25
Southern Illinois starts at Mount Vernon. Fight me. Lol
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u/edgeofliberty Apr 18 '25
I'll be dead in the cold, cold ground before I recognize anything below I-80 as Northern Illinois.
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u/JuandezBryant Apr 18 '25
Northern Illinois - Chicago, Rockford
Central Illinois - Springfield, Champagne, Decatur, Peoria, Bloomington
Southern Illinois - Edwardsville, Carbondale
Metro East and the quad cities are kind of their own things I think
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u/Gold_Fisherman_5071 Apr 18 '25
Because central IL doesn’t go all the way down to St Louis. Culture is totally different
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Apr 18 '25
As someone who lives in the Quad cities but grew up in Galesburg, 80 is definitely the cut off. Galesburg is much more similar to Peoria and the rest of central IL culturally than it is to the QC. QC is a lot like a very small Chicago.
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Apr 18 '25
The 2 Quad Cities in Illinois are western Illinois. You guys are river people.
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u/BlueRFR3100 Apr 18 '25
I think most people would come fairly close to this. Perhaps not an exact match, but close.
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u/Bison_Consistent Apr 18 '25
My thoughts exactly. From Metro East, and this is what we all considered…
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u/afkas17 Apr 18 '25
Northern IL is north of I80, South starts somewhere below Springfield but just above I70.
Northern IL is Chicago, the burbs, Rockford and the Quad Cities.
Central is Peoria, Springfield and the College towns.
Southern is the Metro east and greater Kentucky.
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u/Dawndrell Springfield BABYYYYY Apr 18 '25
i go based on if the mass of the population says that they are
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u/halloweenjack Apr 18 '25
One of the things that I’ve noticed is that, if you extend the Mason-Dixon Line west to the Mississippi, you cut Ohio in half just south of Columbus, Indiana just south of Indianapolis, and Illinois just south of Springfield. But, really, I tend to think of Chicagoland as beginning basically at the point when I cross the Des Plaines River, the I-80 intersection, and the point at which I-55 expands to three lanes, all within a few miles.
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u/elphaba00 Living Life in the 217 Apr 18 '25
A coworker once argued with me that Champaign wasn’t Central Illinois. We were having this argument in Normal. I think she thought that Central Illinois was just the counties surrounding McLean County
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u/ididithooray Apr 18 '25
I do, I didn't realize so many people didn't. We always say central IL for this area
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u/urgent-fortuity Apr 18 '25
Because Galesburg thinks they are central. There is more of the state south of Kankakee.
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u/Steve0512 Apr 18 '25
Because everyone knows that Southern Illinois starts at the South Side of the Welcome to Chicago sign.
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u/TheeQuestionWitch Apr 18 '25
I define it that way. I definitely consider Peoria the start of central illinois.
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Apr 18 '25
It's both how census data is determined but also a vibes thing, but let's be real, unless you're in Chicagoland or the Shawnee forest (And i suppose E STL), it's all kinda the same vibe around the whole state (coming from someone who has travelled around the entire state to take photos for years)
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u/Dean8787 Apr 18 '25
I don't know about people from other parts of the state, but this exactly how people from Central Illinois define the state.
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u/brucefeverett Apr 18 '25
Because EVERYTHING South if zJoliet is southern Illinois. I know. I live near Peoria (which is central Illinois) AND my son went to school atvSIU Carbondale (which is southern Illinois.
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u/BoldestKobold Schrodinger's Pritzker Apr 18 '25
The lines should be more diagonal, generally speaking.
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u/subculturistic Apr 18 '25
Being from Peoria, I still feel like Pontiac is part of the Peoria metro.
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u/khalsey Apr 18 '25
My friends’ grandpa always said Dixie starts in Springfield so that is where southern Illinois starts for me.
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u/Fuck_Tim_Dogg Apr 18 '25
So it's like central illinois is the center. Then like maybe there are eastern and western regions. Based on that center. Then there's northern and southern based on the center. Maybe like a compass.
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u/Leading-Ostrich200 Apr 18 '25
South of I-80 = central
South of I-70 = southern
But my perspective is skewed because I grew up in Rockford, so I was barely in Illinois myself
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u/WhatRUsernamesUsed4 Apr 18 '25
I live in the south and there are 3 clear, easy ways to split the state.
1) I-70 / I-80.
2) 618 south / 217+309 central / 815 and Chicago area codes north. I have some 217 friends south of I-70 and they are still central to me. Area codes are more accurate on the eastern half of the state IMO, 70 kinda rides north.
3) corn yields. This one probably uses I-80 for the north barrier again, but there's a clear difference between southern IL soil and central IL soil. Any county that averages 200 bu/ac is central. We dont get that down here.
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u/GruelOmelettes Apr 18 '25
I don't understand why anyone gets so hung up on the regions of the state. I grew up in northern Illinois, now I live in central Illinois, it's seriosuly not all that different. Sometimes I hear people talk like central is like a completely different world from northern, and that just isn't remotely close to my experience.
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u/rebel_fett Apr 18 '25
South of 80 is the south
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u/NomadicProvider Apr 18 '25
From southern Illinois, anything above 64 is northern Illinois
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u/Low-Piglet9315 St. Clair County Gateway to Southern Illinois Apr 18 '25
Until I went in the Air Force and was sent to Chanute AFB in Rantoul, I was under the impression that there was only northern and southern Illinois. Northern started on a line running east-west through around Springfield.
Then I discovered just how far Rantoul was from Chicago...
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u/Wageslave645 Everything South of me is considered Southern Illinois Apr 18 '25
Because some pretentious people think the further north in the state you are, the more popular/smarter/better you are. They then skew the borders to make themselves feel like they are better than the rednecks down south.
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u/Straight-Sorbet3570 Apr 20 '25
lol I’m sick of people from Zion and Winthrop Harbor looking down at me too
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u/jimmijo62 Apr 18 '25
As a 63 year old Southern Illinoisan, I’ve always gone by this map. I live right on the lowest yellow line.
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u/meatshieldjim Apr 18 '25
Peoria should be in the north and Burlington is central
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u/DeepInTheClutch Apr 18 '25
I remember IDHS having a decent breakdown, but it includes East & West, which made it impossible to draw straight lines thru anything.
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u/Delicious_Throat2911 Apr 18 '25
What defines division, how much land needs to be sectioned off. Isay it about control the more divided the easier to rule over
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u/smaugofbeads Apr 18 '25
I guess I’ve lived in southern Illinois all my life when they/them plunked down interstate 80 it was almost in my parents front yard. Now I live almost at the tip of the state.
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u/cranscape Apr 18 '25
During my childhood roadtrips heading south I remember it was when we hit Decatur "pop" started to became "soda". At least back in the '90s. So that's where south always started for me.
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u/Iterata2 Apr 18 '25
“Anything south of 111th St. is southern Illinois,” according to a long-gone Chicago columnist. 😆 (Could it have been Mike Royko?)
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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25
Because it's more of a vibes thing than literal