Roadside History of Illinois

The “Roadside History of Illinois” by Stan Banash is a nice travel companion to my home state. I picked it up from the library for a family trip to Springfield. The section regarding the Springfield area was helpful and well-written, much like the rest of the book. Stan Banash has a flair for providing interesting tidbits about various points in Illinois organized in manageable short driving trips.

The beginning of the book starts off with a brief chronological history of the state, followed by state facts and a compendium of important firsts. There's also a delightful introduction by the great Dee Brown, who the author must have met while working on a few compilations of Dee's.

From there, the book is broken up into a few regions and then key sites or towns wi the in that region. This book doesn't contain addresses or contact information for these points of interest, which would likely become more and more out of date as time goes on.