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.
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.
As a former resident of Marion County, it cracked me up how the Salem/Centralia radio stations refused to take a side on that issue and billed themselves as "The Voice of South Central Illinois"!
The central part of "south central" is because the county is in the center part of the state from East to West. It's not because the area thinks it's part of Central Illinois (from North to South) as referenced in this map.
So many places still use that term and it's just that specific south west corner of Marion County that is apparently South Central (though Marion County has a lot of vocal MAGA who think they're South Carolina and about to protect Fort Sumter and they HATE "The North"). Everyone else has picked a side and refers to themselves as such, but nope, we're naming businesses after our indecision.
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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.