Thanks to a couple of tips today, I learned that the history of the so-called Forgottonia movement was featured on HBO last night as part of the series How States Got Their Shapes.
I haven’t tried to play this video myself yet, so forgive me if I’m wrong, but it looks like you can watch the full episode on the show’s web site.
If you’re like me, it’s always a bit exciting to see this little place we call home being discussed from the outsider’s point of view. As one friend put it, (a friend who, like me, is a lifelong resident of the region) :
“I still cant believe this was actually on tv. Fandon freakin IL was on the History Channel!”
Tags: history, Illinois, local_history, TV
I remember Neal Gamm and the movement very well from back in my high school days. I think I even drew a political cartoon about it for the school paper. Interestingly, a key complaint at the time–that the Chicago to Kansas City expressway bill passing through the region was defeated twice–has finally become a reality. Most people aren’t even aware that the new “CKC” road signs on 67 and 34 designate Illinois 110, the Illinois portion of the expressway.
Here’s a link to the Peoria Journal Star story about this….
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x1290144368/Gone-but-not-Forgottonia
Just watched this. It was on the History channel – the episode was entitled “The Great Plains, Trains and Automobiles” and the segment on Forgottonia was during the last 5 minutes. They are reairing the episode quite often if you missed it.
I just caught this on How the States Got Their Shapes on the History Channel yesterday afternoon and here I am googling for more info. I was born in Macomb in 62 and lived in both Fulton and McDonough Counties as a kid. I currently live in DC. I didn’t know about this until seeing the show yesterday, but I do have a vague recollection of having heard the name “Forgotonia” mentioned by my father, uncle, and grandparent. Very interesting.
I used to live in Table Grove, went to church in Ipava, two little towns that saw their best times during the worst of times, WWII when Camp Ellis was in operation.
As a kid living in Table Grove in the mid and late 60s, it was fun to make those once a week trips to the “big city” of Macomb and have mom buy me either a Disneyland record, [remember 45s?] or a Matchbox car, items that were not available for purchase in our little village.
An occasional childhood treat was piling in the cars with parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents and caravanning from Table Grove to the almost state capital of Bernadotte on the Spoon River for soft-serve ice cream.
I remember mom driving us to the nearby tiny town of Industry for visits to see Dr Andronovicks, our family physician. He had a big sail fish he had caught mounted on the wall in his waiting room. [Doctors were among the few people in Fulton county to have experienced the world outside of Forgottonia.]
Sigh, so many memories of life in Forgottonia.
I’ll be book marking this site and check back to see nostalgia of other current and former denizens of the area.
@Jeff from Fulton & McDonough counties, thank you for your wonderful comment. I enjoyed hearing about your life in those tiny towns. Amazing to think about how many little places there are like Table Grove and Ipava, which, as you pointed out so well, saw their best of times during the worst of times.
That’s the first I’ve heard of soft-serve in Bernadotte. I’ve been there to see the bridge, but that’s it. A fascinating little place on several levels.
Hey Allison, thanks to you for providing this forum. On several occasions I’ve wondered what someone might be able to do to reinvigorate a little town like Table Grove whether it be a Camp Ellis museum or some kind of small or midsized manufacturing or other business.
It’s been years since I’ve been there, but the last time I drove through TG I was impressed with how well kept most of the homes along the highway running through town were. That, to me anyway, seems to indicate a community spirit that could be rallied around the right projects and breathe a little renewal into the place.
And I LOVE the layout of the town square. So many possibilities. If I were independently wealthy I’d offer to take that on even at a loss just to see the town square restored to it’s former glory.