University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Sugar-Pecatonica Rivers basin : an inventory of the region's resources

Krohe, James, Jr.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/14267

Description

Title
The Sugar-Pecatonica Rivers basin : an inventory of the region's resources
Author(s)
Krohe, James, Jr.
Issue Date
1999
Keyword(s)
  • Natural Resources --Sugar River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Natural Resources --Pecatonica River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Environmental protection --Sugar River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Environmental protection --Pecatonica River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Ecosystem management --Sugar River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
  • Ecosystem management --Pecatonica River Watershed (Wis. and Ill.)
Geographic Coverage
Illinois
Abstract
Beginning in 1838, officials in the then-territory of Wisconsin asserted that the watershed of the Pecatonica River and the Sugar River, its main tributary, and the rest of Illinois’ northernmost 14 counties belonged to the Badger State. The land had in effect been stolen by Illinois, Wisconsin argued, when Illinois inaccurately set its state boundaries in 1818. The legal dispute was resolved in 1848 when Wisconsin officially surrendered its claims to northern Illinois. Ecologically, however, the region remains a creature of Wisconsin. The rivers rise in that state before curving south and east into Illinois, where the two streams, now conjoined, meet the Rock River at Rockton. What happens upstream in Wisconsin has more effect on the rivers (especially the Sugar) than what happens in Illinois. And the climate of the watershed, which lies more than 400 miles north of Cairo, Illinois, is as different from that town’s as Kentucky’s is from Wisconsin’s. This part of Illinois also differs from central and southern counties in terms of its human culture. It was settled not by Kentuckians and Carolinians, as happened to the south, but by Scandinavians, Yankees, and German settlers from Pennsylvania. These were people undeterred by winter. The newcomers also had a different attitude toward the land than that of the slash-and-burn farmers who settled the southern Illinois frontier a generation earlier. Back home they had learned how to farm thinly soiled, hilly country like this without wasting it. Today the verdant pastures dotted with dairy cows (and towns dotted with cheese makers) still give the area a marked Wisconsin flavor.
Publisher
Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources
Series/Report Name or Number
Critical Trends Assessment Program
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/14267
Copyright and License Information
These documents are a product of the Illinois state scientific surveys and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and has been selected and made available by the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are intended solely for noncommercial research and educational use, and proper attribution is requested.

Owning Collections

Critical Trends Assessment Program PRIMARY
Detailed assessments of 32 major watersheds in Illinois, conducted through the Critical Trends Assessment Program administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Includes contributions from each of the State Scientific Surveys which are now part of the Prairie Research Institute.