Discover America USA Travel Guide - The Great Lakes and Great Plains

The Great Lakes and Great Plains

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

Painted Rocks, Michigan. www.michigan.org (James Randklev)

Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario - the largest group of reshwater lakes on Earth. They're more like inland seas with forested islands, rock caves and sand-dune beaches. The Great Lakes were first charted by French explorers in the late 1600s. Towns on their coasts quickly prospered and attracted a steady stream of immigrants to this resource-rich section of the country.

Today, the lake-bordering states offer modern-day explorers — and vacationers — a first-hand look at the wilderness that inspired industrial innovation and powered great cities while furnishing scenic vistas of rural life.

In Minnesota, the great outdoors never shuts down. Fishing, boating and waterskiing are as common in the summer as ice fishing, hockey and snowshoeing in the winter. According to legend, lumberjack Paul Bunyan once toiled in the state’s northwest corner, where the low-lying prairie meets deep-green forests dotted with ice-blue lakes and steamy bogs. Here, majestic pines tower above the headwaters of the Mississippi in Itasca State Park, a 32,000-acre area containing ski trails and historic lodgings. Also within the park is a 2,000-acre wilderness sanctuary for birds and wildlife designated as a National Natural Landmark.

Travel east and explore stunning Lake Superior from Duluth’s downtown Lakewalk. Stop in at the Great Lakes Aquarium to see a variety of freshwater species, including otters, fish and birds. Or head for Minneapolis-St. Paul, known as the “Twin Cities.” Take in a play at Minneapolis’ renowned Guthrie Theater, a world-class venue for classic and cutting-edge drama. Stroll through the eleven-acre Minneapolis Sculpture Garden or picnic next to Minnehaha Park’s famed 53-foot waterfalls. St. Paul is home to the state capitol building and a magnificent Renaissance-style cathedral. You’ll also come upon renowned boutiques and experience a lively theater scene. On the waterfront, don’t miss the Mississippi River sternwheeler and side-wheeler cruises. Minneapolis and St. Paul are ethnically diverse cities where urban sophistication and rural values have met and merged.

Just outside the Twin Cities, experience the great indoors at Bloomington’s Mall of America, with its 520 retail stores, sixty restaurants, seven-acre amusement park, and 1.2- milllion-gallon aquarium. Then, head southeast to the Lincoln County Pioneer Museum in Hendricks, which celebrates the Scandinavian settlers who first farmed this breathtaking wilderness.

Illinois, located at the south end of Lake Michigan, connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River. This geography led to 150 years of intercontinental transportation dominance and once made Chicago the country’s second-largest city. Urban sophistication is reflected in skyscraping landmarks such as Mies van der Rohe’s 1950s-era twin apartment towers on Lake Shore Drive and the Sears Tower, built in 1974 and still among the world’s tallest buildings.

The city continues to be an important cultural center. A tour of Chicago museums should include the Field Museum, where the world’s most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is on display; the Shedd Aquarium, with its floor-to-ceiling Wild Reef exhibit; and the Art Institute of Chicago, which has a splendid collection including such iconic masterworks as Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks and Grant Wood’s American Gothic.

When it’s time to exit the Windy City, head north to Rockford — the City of Gardens — where you’ll find 7,000 acres of parkland. The Anderson Japanese Gardens here are ranked as the best of their kind in North America. Or travel south along the Shawnee Wine Trail amidst the recently designated American Viticultural Area, the state’s first region acknowledged for its distinctive winemaking properties.

Due north is Wisconsin, where there’s real appreciation for the beautiful natural environment. The state has launched a pilot program to encourage and recognize businesses that support eco-friendly tourism.

Travel inland and fly-fish for trout on the Kickapoo River West Fork, a spring-fed waterway lined with orchards and fields. Or travel farther south to La Crosse and kick back at the Great River Jazz Fest — four days of great jazz performed in Riverside Park overlooking the Mississippi.

Michigan, bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, offers visitors an abundance of rugged rural beauty, as well as the world’s longest freshwater shoreline. Spectacular sand dunes, explosive wildflowers and sleepy coves draw visitors to Sleeping Bear Dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan. Further north, where the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet, Mackinac Island has lured travelers for generations with its iconic Grand Hotel and “no-motor vehicles” pace.

Farther west, the Great Plains take a dramatic geographic turn to broad expanses of prairie where homesteaders and ranchers tamed a remote and breathtaking landscape. Two centuries of commerce and cultural cross currents now render a rich traveling experience in this region, whether you’re on backcountry roads or in smart urban centers.

Iowa is known for its warm-hearted hospitality; it’s a great place to reconnect with life’s simple pleasures. Visit the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center in Sioux City on the Missouri River to learn about the triumphs and travails of these two explorers as they traveled through this area on their westward expedition two hundred years ago.

Near Iowa’s eastern border with Illinois, the Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge is a haven for migratory birds and waterfowl. Heading north, on the Wisconsin border, is Marquette, population 421. A few miles outside of town is the Effigy Mounds National Monument, where ancestors of present-day Native Americans left animal-shaped burial mounds on ceremonial grounds hidden in forested bluffs overlooking the Mississippi.

In southwest Missouri, there’s Branson, a charmed town in the Ozark Mountains that’s a springtime garden of blooming dogwoods, redbuds and forsythia. Branson has lately been called “Family-Friendly Las Vegas,” owing to its wide selection of live entertainment — and lots of neon and fl ashy architecture.

Sedalia, in the center of the state, is host each June to the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival and the point of access to the 225-mile Katy Trail that meanders along the Missouri River.

Bonne Terre, in Missouri’s southeast sector, is home to the world’s largest underground lake containing one billion gallons of water. Farther south, at Sikeston, you can whoop it up with the country’s top cowboys during the annual Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo.

The state’s brightest lights shine in its two largest cities: St. Louis and Kansas City. Snap some photos from atop the St. Louis Gateway Arch, a graceful 630- foot-tall ribbon of gleaming steel designed by Eero Saarinen. Trek through an enclosed rainforest at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. And see the wildlife at the St. Louis Zoo: more than 11,000 exotic animals are at home here.

Kansas City can give you a fast lesson in lively nightlife. Roll the dice in Las Vegas-style casinos; sample the famed hickory-style barbecue; and, in the summer, enjoy a concert or Broadway musical in the open-air Starlight Theater.

Neighboring Nebraska is vast and wide open. Pull onto the Heritage Highway, a 238-mile scenic tour along U.S. Highway 136 that begins in the south-central town of Edison and takes you through the native tallgrass prairies and seemingly endless farmland memorialized by author Willa Cather.

Along the way, take a riverboat excursion on Harlan County Lake in Alma. Near Beatrice, visit the Homestead National Monument of America on the original claim of Daniel Freeman, the first homesteader. The free lands provided by the Homestead Act of 1862 encouraged westward expansion of the U.S. Farther east, in Red Cloud, tour Willa Cather’s childhood home.

When you reach the border, stop in Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska. Tour the 1880s-era Old Market, an arts and entertainment district where renovated turn-of-the-century warehouses and uneven brick streets recall the city’s pioneer past.

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