Mattoon (Illinois)

Coles County

17-47553

Mattoon is a city with 18,291 inhabitants ( 2000) in Coles County, Illinois (USA). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.1 km ², all land surface.

Geography

Mattoon is located 43 km north of Effingham, 83 kilometers west of Terre Haute, 71 km south of Champaign, 64 km south-east of Decatur and 184 km north-east of St. Louis in its metropolitan area.

Nearby rivers were running to the lakes Lake Paradise and Lake Mattoon, which lie south of the city, pent up.

Also south of the city is the terminal moraine of a glacier of the Wisconsin glaciation. While the moraine has an age of about 10,000 years ago, the country is about 100,000 years old south. The small oil field in the south of the moraine is also attributed to the glacial activity: the weight of the glacier in the north created columns in the underground and oil accumulated in these columns.

History

First settlers from the south lived in the wooded areas at the headwaters of the Little Wabash River in the southwest of the present city. They distrusted the prairie, which they believed to be the source of fevers.

The history of Mattoon is closely connected with the history of the railways in the region. 1853 noted surveyor of the Illinois Central Railroad and the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad, that the two lines will meet in the area of ​​Mattoon, thus there was an explosion of investment and land speculation. The two companies fought out of the consideration that those who should arrive first at the crossing point, would not pay for the maintenance of such a race to the meeting place. The local settlers marked the for sale plots with lines of pegs (English peg ), and so the place was originally called Pegtown.

In 1861 the town was officially named after William B. Mattoon, the chief engineer of the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad. The reason for this honor is unclear, some say that he won the naming rights because his team decided the race for themselves. Others say that he beat other contenders in a card game, or that the inhabitants of Pegtown hoped that the wealthy Mattoon would invest in the city, if they rename it after him. With the combination of excellent infrastructure and remarkably fertile prairie soils, Mattoon grew very quickly. At the beginning of the 20th century favored the population growth and the connection to the rail network, the industrialization of the city.

The night before the Lincoln -Douglas debate on 18 September 1858 the Coles County fairground Lincoln and Douglas stayed in nearby Mattoon. On June 17, 1861 General Ulysses S. Grant received with the assumption of command of the 21st Illinois Infantry in Mattoon his first post during the American Civil War.

1865 founded Amish settlers in the north, near Arthur, a community. Amish farms and horse-drawn buggies are now not unusual views in the northern part of Mattoon.

In the 1890s, Mattoon led a successful campaign to locate the proposed for Eastern Illinois University in Coles County. Unfortunately for the citizens but the neighboring Charleston was chosen as the site of future Eastern Illinois University instead.

On May 26, 1917 the city was devastated by a tornado, which claimed 101 lives.

The discovery of oil deposits in 1940 in the immediate vicinity of Mattoon led to a small " oil boom" during the 1940s and 1950s and brought economic benefits. Oil production is still an important industry. 1966, the city was built south of the Lakeland College. The educational institution offers the acquisition of degrees for immediate employment and Vorhochschulbildung.

Mattoon was in the late 19th and early 20th century home of several teams of Minor League Baseball. The last stadium, with a capacity of about 2000 seats, was demolished in the late 1950s, but the city has a strong baseball tradition alive, she still has a junior league and has hosted many Junior League and World Series events.

Economy and infrastructure

As a traditional production site Mattoon is due to the loss of several major companies over the past two decades, major challenges. Mattoon is currently one of four cities that have chosen to be the site of the FutureGen zero-emissions power plant of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Transportation is still an important part of the local economy. On the eastern edge of Mattoon Interstate Highway 57 runs The Society for the national passenger rail service, Amtrak, operates the location in the city of Mattoon station, is about the connection to the railway network.

Memorable people

  • Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist, attended a public school in Mattoon
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