Elgin is the seat of one of the state hospitals. The exten sive factories of the Elgin National Watch Company are in Elgin. The school for delinquent boys is located at St. Charles, and the school for delinquent girls at Geneva. Geneva, the smallest of the five cities, is centrally located along the valley in Kane County, and it is the county seat. Aurora has important railroad shops and numerous factories.
Only one other city in the Fox River Basin, Sandwich (2,557), DeKalb County, has a population of more than 2,500. Yorkville (431), Kendall County, is the smallest county seat in Illinois. Numerous villages along the railroads and a number situated a few miles from a railroad, serve the commercial needs of the farming communities in which they are located.
Cities of the Kankakee Basin.—The Kankakee River rises near South Bend, Indiana, and enters Illinois in Kankakee County. Along the Kankakee in Illinois are: Momence (2,201), Kankakee (13,986), and Wilmington (1,450). On the Iroquois River, a southern tributary of the Kankakee, is Watseka (2,476), the county seat of Iroquois County. Near Alomence is one of the noted agricultural experiment fields where scientific soil treatment changed the corn yield from less than 4 bushels per acre to more than 70 bushels. Kankakee is the county seat of Kankakee County. One of the state hospitals is located here. A darn across the Kankakee River furnishes water-power. Just north of Kankakee is Bradley (1,942), an industrial suburb, and a mile or so beyond Bradley is Bourbonnais (611). A denominational college has been established here.
Cities along the Illinois River.—The Illinois River and the Illinois Valley may he divided into three portions: (1) the Upper Illinois extending from the confluence of the Kankakee and Des Plaines rivers to the Great Bend at Hennepin, a distance of 63 miles; (2) the Middle Illinois from the Great Bend to Pekin, 56 miles; and (3) the Lower Illinois from Pekin to the Mississippi, 159 miles.
Seven cities, each having a population of 2,500 or more, and a combined population, in 1910, of 47,139, are located along the Upper Illinois; three such cities with a total of 79,515 inhabitants are situated along the Middle Illinois; and two along the Lower Illinois comprising a population of 9,632. The total population of these 12 cities in 1910 was
136,2S6, with 49 per cent of this number in the single city of Peoria. Seventeen villages having populations between 450 and 1,600, with a total population of 18,794, are found along the Illinois River. The location of these cities and villages was determined by the presence of river terraces high enough to avoid disastrous floods and at such places that the wagon roads from the uplands could find an approach to the river front.
In the Upper Illinois Valley the river is paralleled on the north side by the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and settlements were readily established along the canal at frequent intervals.
About 10 miles below the junction of the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers is Morris (4,563), the county seat of Grundy County.
In La Salle County settlements are numerous along the valley. Near the eastern edge of the county is Seneca (1,120). At Marseilles (3,291), where the fall in the river is 18 feet in 1,1- miles, there has been built a dam for water-power. This power is used in operating factories and in generating electricity for an electric railroad. Ottawa (9,535) is the county seat of La Salle County. Plate-glass and clay products arc among its manufactures. Utica (1,250) has one of the few natural cement factories in the United States.
La Salle (11,537), Peru (7,984), and Oglesby (3,194) in the western part of La Salle County are known as the "tri-cities." La Salle and Peru are on the north side of the river at the ter minus of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Oglesby is on the south side of the Illinois in the valley of the Ver milion River. Oglesby is the name of the post office and railroad sta tion, although the city is incorporated under the name of Portland. Portland cement is the chief manufactured product. Zinc-smelting is the important indus try of La Salle and Peru. A large Portland cement factory is in operation in La Salle. Several coal mines are operated in the vicinity of the tri-cities. The cities and villages of the Illinois Valley in La Salle County contain 42 per cent of the population of the county. If to these we add Streator and Mendota we find 62 per cent of the population of the county living in cities.