04/8/2014
Madison Bondi
It’s no secret that Illinois has a rivalry that goes deeper than even the Chicago Cubs vs. Chicago White Sox war, and it is between the Chicagoland area and downstate Illinois. We regularly see comments (mostly on Facebook) of people suggesting that the only way to save Illinois is for Chicago to secede.
While that may not happen in our lifetimes, it doesn’t mean that people haven’t tried. In fact, according to a map put together by Mansfield University geography professor and blogger Dr. Andrew Shears, if these state partition proposals were fulfilled, Illinois would have been split into five separate states: Forgottonia, Chicagoland, Little Egypt, St. Louis, and whatever was left would remain Illinois.
I don’t know about you, but I’m glad that these state proposals failed, because let’s be honest: Who would want to live in a state called, “Forgottonia”? (Our office consensus is that “Forgottonia” historically has been spelled with a single “T” by those who live there and coined the term, but this is Dr. Shears’ map.)
Check out the map of failed state partition proposals below and see how different the U.S. could have been. Click the map to enlarge.
Click picture to enlarge
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Madison Bondi is Reboot’s outreach manager. Formerly with BCV, an award-winning social media management firm, Bondi has experience in public relations and in building digital communities and brands. Check out Bondi’s work, erasing the mystique of social media and revealing how candidates can use it to their advantage with our weekly Buzz-Meter. You can find Reboot on Facebook at and on Twitter @rebootillinois. Her email is Madison.Bondi@rebootillinois.com.