Some things you should know

New to Champaign-Urbana? Columnist Tom Kacich offers a quick 10-part history lesson on the twin cities:

1. Champaign and Urbana have never been one, although not for lack of trying.

Urbana became the county seat of Champaign County in 1833. Champaign was incorporated in 1860. It became a city only because the Illinois Central Railroad chose to run its main line 2 miles west of Urbana.

There have been two merger votes in the history of the two cities (1953 and 1980), and both were defeated overwhelmingly in both cities. There have been no serious merger proposals since.

If the cities merged, the new city would be the eighth largest in Illinois. On their own, Champaign is the 12th largest and Urbana the 24th.

2. What about merging the two school districts?

It was tried – once – and almost passed. In May 1948, voters in both the Champaign and Urbana school districts voted in favor of a merger. But rural voters torpedoed the proposal under a state law that required it to pass in urban and rural areas separately.

The urban vote was 3,253 for and 2,290 against the merger. But the rural vote was 314 for and 448 against.

3. Why is the University of Illinois here?

Two words: dirty politics. Clark Robinson Griggs, who moved to Champaign County from Massachusetts after the Civil War, pretty much bought off the Legislature after he was elected to it.

Armed with $40,000 raised locally, Griggs moved into Springfield's Leland Hotel in 1867 and opened a nearly full-time reception room where he entertained legislators and their constituents with drinks, dinners, cigars and theater tickets. That, vote-trading and raw political gamesmanship resulted in favorable votes in the Illinois House and Senate in February 1867.

Three days later, Gov. Richard Oglesby signed the legislation that put the Illinois Industrial University in Urbana. Tough luck for Jacksonville, Normal, Lincoln, Bloomington, Chicago and other towns that wanted the public university.

4. Who was McKinley?

In C-U, there's a McKinley Church, a McKinley Health Center, a McKinley Avenue and two high school football fields named for William B. McKinley – the only man from Champaign-Urbana elected to the U.S. Senate to represent Illinois.

McKinley probably was the richest man in the history of the community. At one time he owned the local water and gas companies, the streetcar company, the interurban railway company and even West End Park, an amusement park that is now the site of Champaign's Eisner Park.

McKinley was elected to the Senate in 1920 but died in 1926, just as his only term in the U.S. Senate was ending.

5. Who was Chief Illiniwek?

From 1926 until 2007, the dancing American Indian chief was the symbol of University of Illinois athletics. He debuted at halftime of an Illinois-Penn football game on Oct. 30, 1926, and was so popular that he soon became a fixture at all games, home and away. Later the Chief became a lightning rod for protesters, and his appearances were limited only to home games.

The Chief, attacked as racist by some UI faculty and students, the NCAA and Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, danced for the last time at a Feb. 21, 2007, Illinois-Michigan basketball game at the Assembly Hall.

6. Is WCIA-TV operated by the Central Intelligence Agency?

No, the CIA part stands for "Central Illinois Area. " In the days before cable television, WCIA was one of only two VHF stations in Illinois south of Chicago so it had a market much bigger than the other UHF stations. WCIA went on the air Nov. 14, 1953.

7. Is Champaign County Republican or Democratic?

In recent elections the county has moved more to the Democratic Party although it's marginally Republican ... except in presidential election years when it is marginally Democratic.

The county board has a Democratic majority although most countywide elected officials are Republican. Urbana is solidly Democratic, Champaign less so.

But when it comes to Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, he's not popular anywhere. He barely won Urbana in the November 2006 election, getting 38.7 percent of the vote to 36.2 percent for Republican Judy Baar Topinka and 25 percent for Green Party candidate Rich Whitney.

8. Where are the local lakes?

There aren't any in the area that weren't created by men and machines. The biggest – Lake Shelbyville and Clinton Lake – both were created in the 1970s. Danville, Decatur, Bloomington-Normal and Springfield all have large man-made lakes that also are their water supply. C-U gets its water from the Mahomet aquifer far beneath the cities.

9. Where do the names Champaign and Urbana come from?

Many of the early settlers to Champaign County came from either Kentucky to the south or Ohio to the east.

To the easterners, their new home reminded them of Champaign County, Ohio, and its county seat of Urbana. Urbana, Ohio, is about 53 miles from Columbus. Its population is about 11,500 – less than a third that of Urbana, Ill.

10. How did there come to be a hill in the middle of Champaign on which to build the Illinois Central tracks?

Like our area lakes, the railroad tracks were elevated by men and machines. Dirt moved to Champaign from Paxton (about 30 miles north) was used to build up a mound in 1923. That allowed for viaducts to be built at a number of crossings, which meant that police cars and fire equipment no longer would be blocked from going to the east side of Champaign.

As part of the same $7 million project, an IC depot, now no longer used as a depot, was built between Main Street and University Avenue.

Tom Kacich is a News-Gazette columnist. He can be reached at kacich@news-gazette.com.