Counting Counties in Southern Illinois

Grand Rose Hotel, Elizabethtown, Illinois

This past weekend my wife and I made a three day trip to southern Illinois, picking up five new counties: Gallatin, Hardin, Pope, Saline and Hamilton. That brought my total number of Illinois counties visited to 101 of 102. I hope to pick up my final Illinois county later this year when I take a road trip to Missouri.

It was not the best time of year to visit Illinois. The area had just suffered a severe ice storm a couple of days before. Highways still had many patches of ice and snow, especially over the rural bridges, and much of the area was without electric power. Also, a couple of roads we wanted to take had been detoured because of flooding. A friend of mine who lives in Illinois had advised me that the best time to visit southern Illinois is in the summer when he said it is beautiful. But someone who is intent on visiting every county in the United States can't always wait for good weather. If I traveled only at the peak season for each county I would never complete the quest.

Garden of the Gods, Shawnee National Forest, Illinois

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It is certainly possible to visit more than five counties in a weekend, but I've decided that's enough if a person wants to actually see something of those counties and not just go on a driving marathon. At five counties a weekend, 52 weeks a year, it would take more than 623 weeks, or a little longer than 12 years, to visit every county in the United States. This could be very easily done for the first many weeks. However, the more counties a person visits the further he must travel to reach new territory, so each trip becomes subsequently more difficult, more time consuming, and more expensive. If a person must be obsessed to stick to such a venture then surely I am obsessed. I find it to be a magnificent obsession - full of fun, adventure, and fascinating learning experiences.

Also, I should add that over the past several years I have averaged visiting just over 100 new counties per year - which comes out a little more than two coutnies per week. I hope to complete my quest in about four more years.

Our favorite experience of this past weekend was staying in the Grand Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown. This old riverboat era hotel the Ohio River was established in 1812, making it the oldest hotel in the state. It was amazing to learn that Elizabethtown, with a current population of 350, was once larger than the city of Chicago. Other things we saw included Cave-in-Rock State Park, a place where river pirates once hid out from the law, and Garden of the Gods - very picturesque rock formations - in the Shawnee National Forest. These are remnants of an ancient mountain range called the Shawnee Hills. In Pope County we discovered a sobering monument to the Trail of Tears, memorializing thousands of Cherokees who traveled this way - hundreds of them dying in Illinois - during their forced trek westward. Several other interesting sights of human and natural history, such as the Cave-in-Rock ferry and the oldest Baptist church in Illinois, made me very happy that I visited this off-the-beaten-path corner of Illinois. We found it to be a fascinating part of our great land that we would have never seen if it were not for counting counties.

FAQ: What is Your Favorite County?

When I talk with people about county counting they often ask the obvious question: "What is your favorite county?" That's not an easy question to answer because each county has its own unique appeal. I honestly have never been to any county about which I could not find something to like.

Karen on Lake Michigan in Door County, Wisconsin

This past summer when my wife and I camped for a week in Door County, Wisconsin, I was tempted to say that it was my favorite county. Door County, which is a peninsula jutting into Lake Michigan, has hundreds of miles of shoreline, rocky bluffs, sandy beaches, quaint villages, beautiful farms and orchards, several offshore islands, a dozen lighthouses, numerous historic sites and several state and county parks. It's definitely a county that's got a lot going for it.

But then, on second thought, I love mountains and Door County has no mountains at all. In addition, we saw no waterfalls in Door County, no covered bridges, no old grist mills, no exciting cities, no Amish buggies, no flowing rivers, no prairie, no desert, no national parks or monuments.... Come to think of it, there are lots of things that I love about other counties that can't be found in Door County, at all.

If the perfect county exists, I haven't been to it yet. But there is still hope. After all, I've only visited 2,654 counties to date, and have 487 counties to go. Maybe my favorite county will be one of them.

Superstition Wilderness, Maricopa County, Arizona

So when people ask me about my favorite county, I have finally come up with a stock answer:

"Every place on earth falls into either one of two categories. First, are the places I have not yet visited but would love to see. Second, are the places I have been and would like to return and explore more thoroughly. My favorites are those in the first category."

Need Maps? Try These Links.

Every County Collector has his/her own way of recording the counties they have visited. I began by using a large county outline map of the entire United States, bought at The Map Store in Knoxville, Tennessee. However, after years of rolling and unrolling, marking, and coloring with felt tip pens, it disintegrated. I got another large map and had it laminated. I still use that map, although it is sometimes a bit unwieldy to carry on trips.

My favorite way of mapping my county travels is by using individual state county outline maps such as that of Missouri, pictured above. I not only color in the county, but also jot in the date of my first visit. Such maps can be found on the internet. One good source is the U.S. Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/stco_02.htm. The University of Texas offers the same maps but in a slightly different format: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/county_outline.html.

A very attractive set of county outline maps may be found at this site – although it may take a bit of searching to locate them: http://nationalatlas.gov/printable.html.

My wife and I actually have three sets of state maps in different three ring binders. They are labeled: Stephen's Counties, Karen's Counties, and Our Counties - our counties being those we have visited together.

We also record our travels at a couple of online county sites, the largest being Marty O'Brien's site: http://www.mob-rule.com/counties/. Carey Jensen also has a nice site where you can record your counties online: http://counties.visitedmap.com/.

Celebrating my 50th COUNTRY!

Karen and Stephen Conn Arrive in Belize

In Addition to counting counties I also collect countries. This past Wednesday, January 23, 2008, was a milestone in my country counting when my wife, Karen, and I visited Belize by cruise ship. Belize, once known as British Honduras, is the smallest of the seven countries of Central America. It has a population of around 295,000 and covers an area about the size of the state of Massachusetts. Belize is situated on the Caribbean Sea, bordered on the north by Mexico and on the west and south by Guatemala. It is the only Central American country where English is the official language, although Spanish and Creole are also widely spoken.

Having only one day in Belize did not allow us time to see much of the country, however we did manage to take a tour of downtown Belize City and also visited the ancient Mayan ruins of Altun Ha, a portion of which is pictured below.

On another website I am recording many of my travels, both inside and outside the United States. You can take a look at: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/4b7c5/

Leading Church Denominations in Every County

Here's a map which shows the leading church denomination in every county in the United States. I found it very interesting to study, and maybe you will too. Click the map for an enlarged view.

FAQ: What Counts in County Counting?

One of the most frequent questions I am asked from people who know I am a county counter is: "What do you have to do in a county for it to count?"

The answer is pretty simple - you just have to enter the county. Flying over it doesn't count, but if you cross a county line on the surface of the earth you can say you've been there. It doesn't matter if you are walking, on horseback, in a car, bus or train. If you or your means of transport is touching the ground in a county then it counts.



















Suppose I step across a county line and one second later I am struck in the head by a meteorite and killed. Where will my obituary say I died? Of course, it will have died in the county I just entered. Maybe that's a bit morbid, but how can you die somewhere you've never been?

That said, county counting, or county collecting, is a very individualistic pursuit. Everyone who does it sets their own criteria. Most of the people who follow this hobby do so for their own personal reasons. For myself, I feel no need to prove to anyone that I've been in every county. If I cheat in my counting I cheat only myself. If I actually visited only 99% of the counties and said that I had been to them all, I would find no personal satisfaction in my faked
accomplishment.

It's because that the pursuit is an individual one that many county collectors have different personal criteria and goals. I know of county counters who have their picture made in front of every county courthouse, others who try to mail themselves a postcard with a postmark from every county, and a few who even aspire to climb the highest point in every county. God bless them all. Each of us is doing it our own way and, hopefully, having fun in the process.

Personally, I try to never just cross a county line and turn around, or drive through a county on the Interstate without stopping to see anything. To do that would be missing the whole point of the pursuit. After all, I'm doing this because I want to see as much of our great country as possible and that means taking the time to do a little exploring along the way.

My rule of thumb is to visit at least one recognizable landmark in every county I enter. It might be a historical site, a natural feature, a unique building, a state or county park or whatever I might find.

The two pictures on this post illustrate just a couple of the thousands of interesting discoveries I've made - things I might never have seen in my entire lifetime if I were not a county counter. The top photo is the North Fork Falls of the Holly River in Holly River State Park, Webster County, West Virginia. This is a wonderful natural area, well off the beaten path. Every time I see this picture I remember the summer afternoon when I took the hike to this falls and two others in the park and was amazed at the beauty and serenity of this special place. The bottom photo is of Cherokee Square - Capitol of the Cherokee Nation in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. This was the western end of the infamous Trail of Tears, marking one of the saddest and most shameful episodes in American history. Visiting here was especially meaningful to me because I grew up in Bradley County, Tennessee, where Red Clay State Historic Site marks the beginning point of the Trail of Tears.

Every county has a story to tell - maybe even thousands of stories for those who take the time to search them out. And every time I step across a county line I feel a tinge of excitement at what I might discover.

Froggie's Place

Here's an interesting website of a fellow county counter. . .

Froggie's Place

In addition to his County Collection, Froggie has some other neat stuff on his website that is of interest to road trippers. These include Magnolia Meanderings, Highway Heaven and Highway Photography. You can click him up on the link below and read more:

http://www.ajfroggie.com/roads/county/counting.htm

Discovering America County by County

Editor Bruce Farrin at the Rumford Falls Times

I have just returned from a nine day county collecting trip in the northeast where I visited 17 new scattered counties, completing my collection of the six New England states. I finished Maine by returning to Oxford County, where my county quest actually began 12 years ago. There I had a chance meeting with Bruce Farrin, Editor of the Rumford Falls Times. He interviewed me, and his article appeared in the local newspaper. Here it is:

DISCOVERING AMERICA COUNTY BY COUNTY

By Bruce Farrin

RUMFORD - Particularly during the summer months, many interesting people from all over the world travel through Rumford. Last week, one of them was J. Stephen Conn of Loveland, OH.

Twelve years ago, Conn visited nearby Bethel, marking the final state in the union he had visited. From his blog, Conn wrote about this feat. "Feeling proud and satisfied with my accomplishment, I pulled out the road atlas that night to reflect back on my travels - to all 50 of the United States. My feelings were the same I have heard other travelers speak of after reaching the end of a long-time goal - both a sense of elation and of being let down all at the same time. The list of 50 states was complete. I felt I had been everywhere in the country and there was no where new to go - at least not in America."

"It was then, while pouring over the atlas, I realized that although I had been in every state there were hundreds of spots on the map that I had not yet explored. That very evening I determined that I would begin my travels again - this time to visit every county. A tingle of excitement swept over me as if experiencing a new revelation. I had a fresh goal; my travels had just begun." Conn decided he would visit all the nation's counties and parishes - all 3,141 of them.

"Over the next couple of weeks, I carefully went over the records of my past travels and memories with a county map of each state. I listed only the counties for which I had a clear recollection of having visited. I had been to 1,035 counties - less than one-third of the whole. I determined that within the next 10 years I would travel to them all, at a little more than 200 counties per year." "I thought I could do it in 10 years. It's been 12. It's quite a daunting task," he noted, adding that Oxford County brought his total to 2,563 or about 82 percent.

Conn said he has visited every county in 14 states. "At my present rate, I figure I have a fairly reasonable chance of visiting the last county within the next five years, but not without a very concentrated effort. The counties yet to go keep getting harder to reach." Recently retired, the 62-year-old said "The best part is meeting people. I've learned to love the country."

Conn, a freelance writer and photographer, is also a retired pastor and syndicated newspaper columnist. His writing credits include authoring five books and more than 300 articles which have appeared in a large variety of magazines and scores of newspapers.

Conn said he doesn't compare one county against another. All counties offer something different, so he doesn't choose favorites. Of this area, he noted "There's so much to see and do here. It's beautiful. I didn't know about Muskie being from here or that you had a Paul Bunyan. There's so much to discover and learn." While in this region, Conn said he will hike a portion of the Appalachian Trail, which will make 13 of the 14 possible states he has done this. He also visited Mexico and Dixfield on this day.

Conn said he is one of the 900,000 people listed online at virtualtourist.com. They rank people by the number of travel tips logged. Conn is 16th from the top. As for how many people have accomplished this feat, Conn said research through Google indicates that less than two dozen have visited every county/parish in the country. He has a website titled countycounting.blogspot.com, which has articles and photos of places all over the country he has visited. He said he is still working on tying history together that he has learned along his travels.

Conn said his wife, Karen, enjoyes traveling as well, having visited 900 of the counties with him. Ultimately, Conn said he would love to visit every country in the world, but noted it would take more resources than what he has. He still has managed to set foot in 46 countries, which would be quite an accomplishment for most of the less-traveled population.

"If I can't do that (travel the world), at least I can get to know my own country well," he noted.

Link to the Rumford Falls Times: http://www.rumfordfallstimes.com/frontstory3.shtml

Rumford, Maine

Every Whatever

I've discovered a delightful blog called "Every Whatever" by a young man named Dan, with a little help from friends Carey and Carolyn - people after my own heart. It so happens that Dan and I both live in the greater Cincinnati area, so we're neighbors, although we haven't met yet.

The subtitle of Dan's blog is:

"Visiting all of various places. Like every street in Madeira. Or every county in Ohio. Or every subway stop in New York City. You know, stupid stuff."

Among that "stupid stuff" are entries on riding each of the 62 bus routes in Houston, Texas or visiting every library in Cuyhoga County (Cleveland), Ohio and more. However, I wouldn't call any of those things "stupid." Sitting in front of a television set all day is stupid.

Dan's 24-Hour Ohio County Route

In his November, 2006 entry Dan gives a rather lenghty but amazing account of how he and a couple of buddies performed the remarkable feat of visiting every one of Ohio's 88 counties in less than 24 hours. The story is fascinating, and sometimes hilarious. I wish I could have been there.

Dan is a little weird, in a very positive sort of way. He is also a good writer. If you read my blog, you'll enjoy seeing Dan's. Click it up at http://www.everywhatever.com/ or http://www.everywhatever.blogspot.com/.

Amazing Adventures in Podunk, U.S.A.

Teapot Water Tower, Lindstrom, Minnesota

I have recently returned from a 9 day road trip to meet my wife Karen in Minneapolis for a romantic weekend. She flew to Minnesota on business. Since I am recently retired and have more time than Karen, I drove out to meet her.

Minneapolis is 714 miles from Loveland, so I should have been able to go there and back in well under 1,500 miles, with about 11 hours driving time in each direction. As a truly dedicated county collector, I added five days to the trip and more than doubled the miles necessary. The 3,092 miles I drove took me through parts of 8 states, where I collecting a total of 52 new counties in Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota.

It’s amazing what you can find in small town America – and in a part of the country that some people think is nothing but corn fields. Here are just a few of the discoveries I made:

*The National Hobo Museum and Home of the National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa.

*The World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Darwin, Minnesota. I’ve also seen the “World’s Largest Ball of Twine” in Cawker, Kansas, but for anything this important there’s got to be at least two of them.

*The “World’s Largest Truck Stop” and Trucking Hall of Fame, Iowa 80, 10 miles west of Davenport.

*A teapot shaped water tower in Lindstrom, Minnesota, “America’s Little Sweden.”

*Lots for sale at only $1.00 each in a declining area of North Dakota, to attract new residents.

*An authentic Dutch windmill, Dutch architecture, and a "Tulip Festival" in Orange City, Iowa.*“Ice Cream Capitol of the World" in Le Mars, Iowa.

*Birthplace of the 4-H Club cloverleaf emblem in Clarion, Iowa.

Also I stayed in an authentic old log cabin in the Minnesota North Woods, built as part of a tourist court before the days of modern motels. I savored “world famous” chicken and dumpling soup – a Minnesota regional favorite, kissed a Blarney Stone from Ireland in Emmetsburg, Iowa, and MUCH, MUCH more.

Rural America is just brimming with delightful surprises for those who take time to discover them.

More News about County Collector Margaret Gates

Yesterday I posted an article from The Manhattan Mercury about Margaret Gates, who had just completed her lifelong goal of visiting every county in the United States. In an email from Jessica Grant, the writer for that article, I learned that there had been an earlier piece about the same woman, when she still had 18 counties to go on her quest. Here it is:

The USA, one county at a time
Retiree set to complete quest to visit furthest reaches of each state
Jessica Grant jgrant@themercury.com

Margaret Gates shows maps of Nebraska and South Dakota and the handful of counties (in white) she has left to visit. Staff photo by David Mayes

Few know the United States the way Margaret Gates knows it. .

The octogenarian has traveled the country for much of her life, and by the end of May, she will have been to every county in America.

"I only have 18 counties left — nine in Nebraska and nine in South Dakota," Gates said.

Her travels began soon after she was born. Her father, Frank C. Gates, was a botany professor at Kansas State University and each summer, before heading to the University of Michigan to teach for two months, he would take the family on meandering three-week trips to collect specimens for the herbariams he helped keep.

"Dad was trying to collect specimens from every county in the country," Gates explained. "My dad believed in teaching whoever he was with. All winter, David (her brother) and I would study maps and we got to help plan the trips."

Her father had a U.S. map on which each county was delineated, and Gates still has the map, each tiny square colored in, with the year the family visited the county marked in her father's neat penmanship.

Gates, a small, sharp woman who's spry for her 83 years, is straightforward with a sly sense of humor. She's a treasure trove of travel information but has no plans to record her stories.
"I don't write well," she said. "Everybody says to write my stories down, but I just like to talk. If you start asking questions, I won't stop talking."

She says she can remember the days when people still traveled by train — her family didn't get its first automobile until 1929, so most of her early travels were by rail. She says she remembers traveling on the first highways.

"The roads didn't have highway numbers then, just the names," Gates said, "and the only paved roads were in towns."

As she talks about her travels, she notes that Georgia is second only to Texas in the number of counties in a state, and that Alaska doesn't have counties, just population districts .

She says she remembers the first time she saw the word "motel."

"People didn't travel much in those days and we were in La Jolla, Calif., when I first saw the word," she said. "My dad told me it was a contraction of the words 'motor' and 'hotel.'"

The Gates family traveled in the days when access to public monuments was a bit more lax, and one of her fondest memories is sliding down President Lincoln's nose — at Mt. Rushmore, that is.

"(Her family was) at the top of Mt. Rushmore — we got to go to the top when they were doing repairs on Lincoln's nose," she said. "One of the men had left his jackhammer down on the nose. He asked if I wanted to ride down the ropes with him to get it, so I did."

Gates traveled with only the company of a string of Boston terriers, but said she was never concerned for her wellbeing.

"I never felt unsafe," she said. "I drove a 1959 TR30 and would throw a sleeping bag down on the side of the road and sleep. People told me it wasn't safe, but I never felt that way."
When asked what her favorite place to visit was, she sighs.

"Everyone asks me that," she said, "but the natural beauty of this country is our best kept secret. Every place has great spots. The Blue Ridge Mountains in Tennessee, when the rhododendrons are blooming — there's just something unearthly about that.

"But for me, the joy of traveling is seeing the horizon," she continued. "I used to drive a convertible and loved to drive across the plains at night and tilt my head up to watch the stars."

In 1991, when she retired as head librarian at Manhattan Public Library, Gates decided to finish her travels. She made a solid dent in her project, visiting the corners of America in a motorhome.

The travel project was almost completed when Gates lost her sight last summer to wet macular degeneration, a disease in which blood vessels under the eye's retina leak and cause scarring.

The bookworm says losing her sight was heartbreaking, but she's now discovered books on tape. She lives at Meadowlark Hills Retirement Community with her Boston terrier (who also happens to be blind). She still sees images out of the corners of her eyes, but said she has no plans to drive again.

Gates will finish her trip this summer with the help of longtime friends Charlie and Alice Michaels.

Although she has almost completed her quest, Gates said she will never feel as if her travels are finished.

"We tend to do the things we want to, don't we?" she mused. "Everything in life is a choice and I just happened to be more adventuresome than most."

http://www.themercury.com/News/article.aspx?articleId=352f3528422d4b9bb4669473417fd703

Manhattan, Kansas, Woman Completes Her County Quest

Kansas Photo by J. Stephen Conn

Article from The Manhattan Mercury:

At journey's end, with good friends
Local woman finishes lifelong quest
Jessica Grant jgrant@themercury.com

After 83 years and more than 3,000 counties, Margaret Gates has completed her exploration of America.

Her journey began with her father — former K-State Botany Professor Frank C. Gates — as he collected specimens from every county in the United States. Margaret Gates later made it her goal to finish visiting each county, a goal she achieved a couple of weeks ago in Bennett County, S.D.

"I feel like I'm finished," Gates said. "It's like in the Caribbean when the people have sold their wares, they throw up their hand and say 'I'm finished!' That's how I feel now." When she entered the final county, her traveling companions, Charlie and Alice Michaels and Alice's sister Mary Reinke, produced noisemakers, balloons and a bottle of champagne, and played Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again."

Gates has photos in which she is releasing those balloons, her small frame appearing to almost float away in the strong wind. Attached to the balloons was a note that read "This celebrates a lifelong quest to visit every county in every state in the USA. Bennett Co., S. Dakota, being the final one. God Bless America; The Beautiful." At the end of the note, Gates included her e-mail address, in hopes someone finds the note soon and lets her know where the balloons ended their journey.

Although she has a tough exterior, Gates says she teared up a bit when she popped the cork off the chamgagne.

"I'm just very satified, grateful and pleased with the people who helped me finish this trip," she said.

Alice Michaels said she and Reinke consider Gates family, and they were glad to help her finish her journey.

"We just had the most fun on the trip," Michaels said. "We found so many ways to enjoy it. Having finally finished this lifelong thing was overwhelming ... I think it took a little while for it to sink in. That evening, we kept saying 'We did it! We did it!' "

As the Mercury reported earlier this spring, Gates had only 18 counties left in her quest; nine in Nebraska and nine is South Dakota.

People often ask why she saved counties so close to Kansas for the end. In Nebraska, a group of county commissioners who'd heard of her travels asked her to attend their meeting, and asked her that question.

"I don't think that fast on my feet, but Charlie (Michaels) answered the question for me," Gates said. "He said 'she wanted to save the best for last.'"

At that meeting, Gates learned about ethanol production and how it is expected to affect the state of Nebraska.

"That's the beauty of this type of travel," she said. "The fun is to meet people and learn. You don't have that on the interstates."

When asked what her favorite places to visit were, Gates sighs, a pained look on her face. She says she could provide many lists of the counties she's enjoyed, but that narrowing it down is tough. After a meandering (but pleasant) conversation, she did provide The Mercury with a list.

"It's hard to rank counties. Each is so different," Gates said. "I often think of places with great nostalgia."

She gets a faraway look in her eyes as she speaks, the kind of look that reveals as much as it veils. Gates has countless memories of her travels — many of which she's more than willing to share — but that gaze indicates plenty of memories that she'll always keep to herself.

She doesn't have plans set, Gates said, but she will undoubtedly do more traveling.

"I'm just glad I was able to complete this trip," she said. "I never thought I would do it before I died."

Her own Top 10 Riley County. "I wouldn't have lived here half of my life if I didn't love it. Living out at Tuttle Creek was a joy."

Emmett County, Mich. "I spent my summers there as a child. It was gorgeous, but I wouldn't have wanted to live there in the winter."

Cheboygan County, Mich. (Neighboring county of Emmett County).

Craven County, N.C.

Fayette County, Pa. "This is where Falling Water — Frank Lloyd Wright's famous house — is. Every inch of it is a marvel. Everyone should go there and close their eyes and marvel at how one man could envision this. When the laurel bushes and the rhododendrons are blooming it's lovely."

Stone County, Mo. "There were only 260 people living in the County seat when I lived there."

Lee County, Fla., Sanibel Island.

Suffolk County, N.Y.

Middlesex County, Conn. "I was there in May and the trees were that new green they get right before they burst with color."

Humboldt County, Calif. "It's backwoodsy. I loved the flora and fauna and it hasn't been spoiled like so much of the California landscape. The redwoods are so spectacular."


http://www.themercury.com/news/article.aspx?articleId=c589e65b95dc4b3fbeec9c21c7800e7b