East-Central Illinois

Book excerpt: A QUICK OVERVIEWExcerpted from About the Author (page x):This three-part East-Central Illinois Study was researched, graphics-designed, and explanatory text written, with the intent of reaching the interested lay reader. The author, a pre-computer-age graphic artist, cartographer, and statistics student, brings a unique perspective to her exacting investigations of the legendary black-soil-prairie region of east-central Illinois and its historical context.Excerpted from the Preface (page xi):The Illinois black-soil-prairie region of her study area is judged to be among the best regions in the world for agricultural production, and is thus especially worthy of interest. The three intellectual themes of the narrative are presented as the three parts of the book.Part I [Landforms & Ecosystems in the Making - 20,000 years] describes ancient geological developments of landform, of flora and fauna, and how the study region developed in response to the end of glaciation and the introduction of human-managed prairie ecology.Part II [Hunting Territory to U.S. Public Domain, 1607-1819] moves into the early centuries of the recorded history of the region, and the ways in which the American tribal populations and Euro-American populations interacted as territories under the dominion of native hunting populations were changed, by treaty, into U. S. Public Domain.Part III [Measured, Marked, and Recorded: Wilderness Becomes Real Estate, 1805-1845] proceeds with the remarkable history of the surveying and management of the original prairie and its transformation into a cultural and economic resource with the features of private property.