Located outside Harrisburg, Illinois, Shawnee National Forest is a conglomerate of nature, beauty, adventure, and life. If you take a trip to one of Illinois’ top parks, check out a few of the following trails:

Garden of the Gods Observation Trail – Along this semi-short trail, hikers will encounter the most recognized rock formation labeled “Camel Rock.” This rock formation has been captured and imprinted on U.S. quarters. This hiking trail requires extreme caution, so make sure to enjoy your experience while staying safe.

Rim Rock National Recreation Trail – On Rim Rock trail, hikers will stumble across charming creeks, direct access to Pounds Hollow Beach where camping is imminent, and an enormous stone fort utilized by past Native American inhabitants.

Indian Kitchen Trail – This trail is intertwined with a great part of the Lusk Creek Wilderness, which is also in the Lusk Creek Canyon Nature Preserve. Nonetheless, Indian Kitchen trail is a much more challenging adventure for enthusiastic hikers and equestrians.

Those who pass through here will find signage from the Native American past, caves, bluffs, old homesteads, and abandoned roadways. Due to flash flooding, camping is not permitted within the Nature Preserve. However, canoeing is a common occurrence during the warmer seasons.

Old Stoneface – This trail is a simple path known for its most unique rock formation, Old Stoneface. It is a formation of stones that resemble an aging face.

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Navy Pier, previously known as the Municipal pier, opened in 1916. Its purpose was to be a place for leisure for the public as well as a shipping hub for cargo and passenger ships. Less than a year later, the U.S. declared war on Germany, and the pier adapted to an important role in military preparations. In WWII, it became a naval base.

The University of Illinois satellite campus was created on the pier as a result of the GI bill, a bill that provided benefits to soldiers returning from war. From 1946 to 1965, an estimated 100,000 students took classes there. Once the campus moved off the pier, the pier was unused until 1976 when America’s Biennial was celebrated there. The grand ballroom was reconstructed, and the pier became a Chicago Landmark in 1977. Chicagofest, an annual music festival was created, and it took place on the pier. This festival made the pier more of an attraction until the festival ended in 1983.

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For parties, cookouts, and celebrations of any kind, there is always one common item – the red solo cup. Did you know its origins are rooted in the South Side of Chicago? Amid the Great Depression, Leo Hulseman launched his new business idea for easily accessible and disposable kitchenware.

Hulseman spent his nights creating paper cups so he could sell them throughout the day. Eventually, he invested in a 1940 machine that was invented by George Method Merta, an immigrant from Metylovice, Czechoslovakia who settled down in Chicago, which produced 250 cups per minute from a single roll of paper.

When choosing a brand for this new innovate cup, Leo Hulseman and his two sons agreed on “Solo” because the cup was “so high in quality, so low in price.” However, a patent lawsuit presented itself later. The “Solo” name was initially devised by Bozena Merta, a Czech immigrant.

As the legal situation was handled and business continued, Leo Hulseman dabbled in the music and television industry. It was a tool in advertising his Solo cups. He would provide ads for grocery stores and surrounding businesses as a means of receiving shelf space for his product in their establishments.

After Leo’s passing, his son, Robert Hulseman decided to expand the company and the product’s design. Robert pursued a more modern proposition of using plastic rather than paper. He found machines in Germany equipped with fulfilling this task. When creating test samples of the contemporary product, he looked to his own children to select the colors. In its 1970s debut, the Solo cup was made available in red, blue, yellow, and peach. Red received the most favor.

The Solo Cup Company also played a role in the creation and patent of the Traveler Lid for coffee cups. The design was developed by Robert Hulseman and Jack Clements. It became a widespread tool after Starbucks applied it to its many coffee cups and New York’s MOMA featured the acclaimed lid in a 2004 “Humble Masterpieces” exhibit.

For some time, the Solo Cup brand was connected to the well-known Star Wars films. This was due to the main character, Han Solo. In 2011, country star Toby Keith released a hit song titled, “Red Solo Cup.”

Since the start, the red solo cup has remained a classic, disposable kitchenware and symbolizes a great deal of festivities within popular culture.

Born and raised in Chicago, this Mexican-American woman has a great deal of linguistic talents. Through her application of words on blank pages, she has impacted the world. She has received a number of sublime fellowships, national and international awards, honorary degrees and international recognition as a writer.

She earned the Texas Institute of Letters Dobie-Paisano Fellowship and the Illinois Artists Fellowship both in 1984, the Texas Medal of the Arts in 2003, the Fifth Star Award presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs in 2015, the Tia Chucha’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, and the Ford Foundation's Art of Change Fellowship in 2018. On Sept. 22, 2016, Cisneros was presented with the National Medal of Arts by then U.S. President Barack Obama, who was also former Illinois state senator. Cisneros was also the recipient of honorary degrees from numerous universities, including Loyola University at Chicago and DePaul University.

Her work ranges in its forms and styles of storytelling. She creates poetry, short stories, novels and showcases performances. Cisneros is most well-known for her fiction novel, The House on Mango Street, composed of a series of vignettes, which are short poetic descriptions. This was one of her first books to be translated and distributed in over twenty languages. Most of her collection may be found in both the English and Spanish languages.

Along with her journalistic and artistic endeavors, Cisneros has founded non-profit youth professional development organizations. After being awarded the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Cisneros helped develop Los MacArturos, a MacArthur fellowship for Latinos who could work together in serving their communities. She founded the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation. Cisneros describes the Macondo Foundation as “an association of socially engaged writers.” For 15 years, the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation aided Texas writers by providing grants for their professional development and career advancement.

Cisneros possesses dual citizenship in the United States of America and Mexico, which is where she currently resides with her three dogs. She gracefully embraces her Latin roots, and her admiration is expressed throughout her bodies of art. The literature that she has produced is often categorized as sensational and classical.

To read more about her life, work and ongoing events, you may visit SandraCisneros.com.