visit

As a fan of the castle concept, it's pretty cool knowing that Illinois has that many. It's even cooler to know that several of those castles are surprisingly close to Rockford.

As a fan of the castle concept, it's pretty cool knowing that Illinois has that many. It's even cooler to know that one of those castles is surprisingly close to Rockford.

If you let it, the seemingly unending stream of Illinois' woes that you see every single day in the news can really get you down. All the talk about budget fights and impasses, high crime and violence rates, high taxes, and the fact that we lead the nation in people who want to leave their state can make you forget about some of the things we can be proud of.

The photo of Lincoln that you're looking at was taken in Beardstown, Illinois in 1858. It is supposedly one of the last (if not the very last) photos taken of Lincoln without a beard (and it was taken in Beardstown? Oh, the irony!). This photo gives you a pretty good idea of what Lincoln looked like when he visited Rockford 3 years previously, in 1855.