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Midwest focus: travel America highlights top tourist attractions in 10 states

Roberta Sotonoff

ILLINOIS

LAND OF LINCOLN

Start in Chicago, the Windy City. Its world-class museums include the Field Museum, Art Institute, Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium, and Museum of Science and Industry. Extending over a half mile into Lake Michigan, Navy Pier is a potpourri of parks, promenades, entertainment stages, restaurants, shops, and attractions like the giant Ferris wheel. Springfield, with the Old State Capitol, Abraham Lincoln Home, and his final resting place at Oak Ridge Cemetery, is truly the land of Lincoln. Nearby New Salem, a reconstructed log cabin village, looks much like it did when young Abe lived there. Another U.S. president, Ulysses S. Grant, once lived in the hilly northwest Illinois town of Galena, known for its craft and antique shops, plus cozy bed and breakfasts. The 48-foot tribute to Native Americans, known as Black

Hawk, towers over the Rock River at Lowden State Park in Oregon. Near Utica, canyons, bluffs, and waterfalls make Starved Rock one of the state's most beautiful parks. Down in southern Illinois, between the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, diverse vegetation, wildlife, and outdoor recreation thrive in the rough, unglaciated areas of Shawnee National Forest. Hiking among unusual rock formations is popular in state parks like Giant City and Garden of the Gods.

INDIANA

THE HOOSIER STATE

History lives in southern Indiana towns. Lincoln City has restored Abe Lincoln's boyhood farm home. The river towns of New Harmony, a 19th century Utopian community, and Madison, preserved because residents were too poor to renovate it, brim with nostalgia. Santa Claus postmarks and the world's oldest theme park, Holiday World, are in the town of Santa Claus. Drive north to the gentle hills of Brown County State Park to hike or to browse Nashville's art galleries and shops. In downtown Indianapolis, Circle Centre is a huge entertainment, shopping, and dining complex. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest such museum. The Hall of Fame Museum at Indianapolis Motor Speedway features some of the Indy 500's winning cars. When the track is idle, visitors can take a spin around the track on a mini-shuttle. Conner Prairie, a living history museum in nearby Noblesville, is a pioneer village where the year is always 1836. West of Indianapolis are the 32 covered bridges of Parke County, which celebrates them each October with its 10-day Covered Bridge Festival, one of the Midwest's best fall events. Simple life prevails in the Amish country of northern Elkhart County, while marshes, sand dunes, and sand canyons dot the shores of Lake Michigan at the Indiana Dunes.

IOWA

THE HAWKEYE STATE

Iowa is more

than a big field of corn. Run the bases at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, where the Kevin Costner movie was filmed. The birthplace of President Herbert Hoover is in nearby West Branch. Tour the presidential library, his reconstructed home complete with outhouse, the one-room schoolhouse, and the Friends meeting house. European attractions abound in Iowa's ethnic melting pot. See the Vesterheim

Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elk Horn, and the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids. The Dutch colony of Pella is not only famous for its windows, but for tulips, pastries, and crafts. The Amana Colonies, another popular ethnic destination, are actually seven German villages that were founded as a commune in the mid-1800s. This National Historic Landmark gets raves not only for its Old World cooking and fresh breads but also for woolens, quilts, furniture, and clocks. The Winterset area has a touch of Hollywood with John Wayne's birthplace, a modest four-room home; Francesca's House from the movie The Bridges of Madison County; and the six 100-year-old bridges themselves. Nearby is Des Moines with its 23-carat, gold-domed Capitol, where you will find a scale model of the battleship Iowa and a new World War II memorial. From May through October, Living History Farms, an open-air agricultural museum, features rural life activities from 1700 to the early 20th century.

KANSAS

THE SUNFLOWER STATE

Look beyond the multitude of cows, corn, wheat, and sunflowers, and explore Kansas' cities and towns. Fine examples of Victorian, Italianate, and stone vernacular architecture grace the streets of Old West Lawrence in Lawrence. Topeka, the state capital, played a large role in the prelude to the Civil War. Its history as a stop in the Underground Railroad and the heated slavery issue that became known as "Bleeding Kansas" is chronicled at the Kansas Museum of History. Dodge City is one of the nation's most famous cowboy towns. Its lawlessness and lawmen, like Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Charlie Basset, are legendary. All those days come alive at Boot Hill, the cemetery where cowboys were "buried with their boots on," and the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street Replica. Original wagon ruts from the legendary Santa Fe Trail are still visible west of town. Wichita's 17-acre, open-air Old Cow-town Museum recreates the 1865-1880 era of Wichita and Sedgwick County. Old Town Marketplace, a renovated entertainment district, overflows with turn-of-the-century charm. Bison still roam at the Finney Game Refuge in Garden City. In the scenic Flint Hills, wildflowers cover the grasslands of Tallgrass Prairie Natural Reserve, and a 19-mile hiking and biking trail, part of Cimarron National Grasslands, runs parallel to the Santa Fe Trail.

MICHIGAN

THE GREAT LAKES STATE

The Upper Peninsula abounds with lighthouses, waterfalls, rivers, and iron and copper mines. Float through the busy Soo Locks that divide Lakes Michigan and Huron at Sault Ste. Marie. Visit the famous Grand Hotel, sample the famous fudge, or hop a horse-drawn carriage on Mackinac Island. Detroit, with its growing theater district, major league sports, new Science Center, world-class Detroit Institute of Arts, and new three-mile Riverwalk, is undergoing a renaissance. At the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in neighboring Dearborn, the Wright Brothers' home, Thomas Edison's lab, an IMAX Theatre, and "The Automobile in American Life" exhibit are showcased. Nearby Lansing produces Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, and Chevys. You can see how they are made at a free tour of the General Motors assembly plant. Family-friendly towns dot the sandy shores of Lake Michigan. Just west of Traverse City, the "Cherry Capital of the World," are massive mountains of sand at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore; some tower 460 feet over Lake Michigan. Stroll Grand Haven's boardwalk or see its musical fountain illuminate the summer night. Take a thrill-filled dune buggy ride at Silver Lake. Explore the state's ethnic towns. Holland's tulip festival, windmill, canals, and the DeKlomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory are a touch of the Netherlands, and you will swear you are in Bavaria after eating wienerschnitzel at Zehnder's of Frankenmuth, 85 miles northwest of Detroit.

MINNESOTA

LAND OF LAKES

You would think with 12,000 lakes, residents would have to walk on water, but the state's urban enclaves like the Twin Cities make it very cosmopolitan. The Mississippi Mile, Minneapolis' riverfront neighborhood of cobblestone streets, historic buildings, and outdoor restaurants, is the birthplace of the city. St. Paul's Science Museum of Minnesota is considered one of the nation's best. Both cities are venues for top-notch theater, sports museums, and music. The area is also home to the mother of all malls, Mall of America. Besides retail, it offers endless options for spending money--nightclubs, amusement park rides, NASCAR Silicon Motor Speedway, and Underwater Adventures aquarium. Shopping and cities are fine, but what makes Minnesota special is its outdoor wonderland. For fishermen, Minnesota is a liquid land of plenty with muskie, pike, walleye, trout, and other gilled treasures. To the north are fish-filled wilderness lakes, Voyageurs National Park, and the true northwoods. Objibwe Indians once dwelled in the forests that border Lake Superior. Now Superior, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and Voyageurs National Park have become a hiking, mountain bike, kayaking, and canoeing mecca. Fall foliage fans throng the scenic bluff country of southeastern Minnesota, where historic Mississippi River towns include Winona, Wabasha, and Red Wing. A cache of German, Scandinavian, and central European historic sites mark the southwest landscape.

MISSOURI

THE SHOW ME STATE

Missouri offers bustling cities, vast forests, and 50,000 miles of rivers and streams. Hikers and bicyclists follow the 225-mile Katy Trail, a rails-to-trails conversion that weaves past small communities, wine country, and wilderness as it exposes towering bluffs and the Missouri River. The scenic Ozarks, where fishing and canoeing get accolades, is also home to one of the world's largest manmade lakes, Lake of the Ozarks, and one of the country's most popular entertainment venues, Branson. Memories of Mark Twain echo in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal. In St. Joseph, early mail service is remembered at the Pony Express Museum. The nation's 33rd president, Harry Truman, lived in Independence. Visit his home and the Truman Presidential Museum and Library. Cosmopolitan city life thrives in St. Louis and Kansas City. Take a journey inside the symbol of St. Louis, Gateway Arch. Visit its famous zoo or Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Missouri's largest historic district in nearby St. Charles attracts shoppers on the lookout for crafts and antiques. Fountains, jazz, Art Deco architecture, steaks and barbecue make Kansas City unique. KC is the birthplace of the American shopping mall, the Moorish-styled Country Club Plaza.

NEBRASKA

THE CORNHUSKER STATE

Creatures have passed through Nebraska for eons. Some that stayed are entombed at Ashfall Fossil Beds. National Geographic calls that ancient waterhole, near Royal, the "Pompeii of prehistoric animals." Millions of years before Lewis and Clark ventured up the Missouri, hundreds of thousands of sandhill cranes spent their spring break on the Platte River near Grand Island. They still do. Pioneers trekked past Nebraska's rolling grasslands on the Oregon, Mormon, and California trails. The ones that stayed, the prairie-town builders, are celebrated at Grand Island's Stuhr Museum, a living history museum. Down the road at the Hastings Museum, exhibits honor Edwin Perkins, inventor of Nebraska's official drink, Kool Aid. Omaha, the state's largest city, has come a long way from its former role as a prairie outpost. It is known not only as the home of Father Flanagan's Boys Town, but for a diversity that is reflected in ethnic heritage museums, neighborhoods, and restaurants. The Henry Doorly Zoo just opened the world's largest geodesic dome, complete with a simulation of the world's deserts and a "Kingdoms of the Night" exhibit of caves, an underground river, and a rainforest. In Lincoln, check out Nebraska's Capitol, the Museum of Nebraska History, and National Museum of Roller Skating.

OHIO

THE BUCKEYE STATE

Legends live in Ohio. It is home to eight presidents, the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. To literally rock and roll in Ohio, try any of the giant roller coasters at Sandusky's Cedar Point, Six Flags Ohio near Cleveland, or Paramount's Kings Island near Cincinnati. In Dayton, see first-class aircraft exhibits at the United States Air Force Museum. The state capital, Columbus, has COSI, a highly rated, hands-on science museum. The 19th century homes and gardens of the city's German Village brim with Old World ambience. If M*A*S*H reruns are still a turn-on to you, stop at Corporal Klinger's favorite spot, Tony Packo's Cafe in Toledo. The big news in Toledo this year is the new downtown stadium of the Toledo Mud Hens baseball team. The horse and buggies, home cooking, and crafts of northeast Ohio's Amish country are a slice of country life. Southeast Ohio has Appalachian culture and nine state parks in the Hocking Hills area.

WISCONSIN

THE BADGER STATE

Though Wisconsin has a lot more to offer than beer, cheese, and cows, brew is plentiful in Milwaukee's authentic German restaurants like Mader's and Karl Ratzsch's or on a Miller Brewery tour. Don't miss Milwaukee's Public Museum, zoo, and the city's new architectural wonder, Milwaukee Art Museum's Quadracci Pavilion, which flaps its movable wings toward Lake Michigan. Nearby Madison has lakes, a farmers' market on the State Capitol grounds, and the modern Monona Terrace, a community and convention center that Frank Lloyd Wright designed over 50 years ago. Wright grew up in nearby Spring Green, where you can visit Taliesin, his primary home and studio. Down the road is the House on the Rock, a blufftop house with exhibits from music machines and Oriental art to dolls and suits of medieval armor. Nearby New Glarus is Switzerland without the Alps. You'll find trolls and the Mustard Museum at the neighboring Norwegian town of Mount Horeb. Travel north to Baraboo and visit the Big Top at Circus World Museum or learn about different crane species at the International Crane Foundation. America's largest water park is at the Wisconsin Dells, an amusement-filled family mecca. Take a Dells cruise boat and see the sandstone cliffs that flank the Wisconsin River. Quaint villages, state parks, lighthouses, and miles of shoreline distinguish Wisconsin's eastern "thumb," Door County.

Grape Time

On southern Illinois' Shawnee Hills Wine Trail, you can tour the wineries, taste the product, and buy a bottle or two. Antique shops and rugged scenery also lure tourists to this area by Shawnee National Forest, not far from the Mississippi River.

Classic Cars

Pangs of nostalgia attack auto buffs at the Aug. 29.-Sept. 2 Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival in Auburn, Indiana, where boldly styled cars were made in the 1920s and '30s.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Free travel planning information is available from the tourism offices of the following Midwestern states:

Illinois, (800) 2-CONNECT; www.enjoyilli nois.com

Indiana, (800) 291-8844; www.enjoyindi ana.com

Iowa, (800) 345-IOWA; www.traveliowa. com

Kansas, (800) 2-KANSAS; www.travel KS.com

Michigan, (800) 78-GREAT; www.michi gan.org

Minnesota, (800) 657-3700; www.explore minnesota.com

Missouri, (800) 877-1234; www. missouri tourism.org

Nebraska, (800) 228-4307; www.visitne braska.org

Ohio, (800) BUCKEYE; www.ohiotour ism.com

Wisconsin, (800) 432-8747; www.travel wisconsin.com

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