Illinois looking for its 7 wonders

The Illinois Bureau of Tourism wants the public to nominate the state's most unique natural attractions -- some of which are found in Southern Illinois.

Although it may lack the Hanging Gardens of Babylon or the Pyramids of Giza, Southern Illinois offers visitors the Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee National Forest and the Cache River wetlands.

The Garden of the Gods -- located approximately 90 minutes east of Cape Girardeau -- contains a variety of large sandstone rock formations, camp sites and hiking trails in more than 3,000 acres of forest. The natural attraction can be nominated for the Illinois Bureau of Tourism's "Seven Wonders of Illinois" promotion.

Echoing the ancient seven wonders of the world, visitors to the www.enjoyillinois.com Web site will be able to make nominations through February, said Jan Kostner, the bureau's deputy director.

Those nominations can be for anything residents and visitors consider wonderful about Illinois -- parks and historic sites, statues and museums, cheesy roadside attractions and naturally beautiful scenic spots.

The nominees will be placed in "March Madness"-style brackets for each of seven regions: Chicago, Chicagoland, northern, central, western, southwest and southern.

The public then will be able to participate in online voting for their favorites starting March 5, with the field being narrowed through the rest of the month.

The tourism bureau will announce one winner for each region on April 30, along with themed travel packages and downloadable videos, Kostner said.

Wendy Cowsert, an information assistant at the Shawnee National Forest, believes a favorite nominee should be the Garden of the Gods.

"It's just breathtaking," she said.

Acquired by the Forest Service in 1933, the Garden of the Gods received little public recognition until the mid-1950s, Cowsert said.

It was during tourism promotion of Southern Illinois in 1956 before Garden of the Gods became a popular attraction. The promoters were so intrigued with this area that they began to put pressure on the Illinois forest service to build roads into the remote areas and install facilities for camping, picnicking and sightseeing.

Half a million visitors

Today, more than 500,000 people visit Garden of the Gods each year.

Cowsert said fall is the best time to visit the park.

"We have thousands of cars coming through during weekends in the fall," she said. "The winter is also a good time to visit because you can see for miles and miles."

In southwestern Illinois, a favorite nominee should be the Meeting of the Great Rivers Scenic Byway Area, at least in the opinion of Brett Stawar, president and CEO of the Alton Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The area is where the Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois rivers meet. It features towering limestone bluffs, state parks, bike trails and several sites memorializing connections to explorers Lewis and Clark, whose Corps of Discovery spent time there preparing for their historic journey.

"It is one of the wonders created by nature, but you also have the historical pieces funneling in," Stawar said. "It's our destination driver."

Kostner said she also hopes the promotion helps with a challenge Illinois tourism officials continually face: Convincing Chicago-area residents to consider getaways in other parts of the state as opposed places like Michigan and Wisconsin.

"We have history other states don't have with [former presidents] Lincoln, Reagan and Grant. We have wonderful and beautiful rivers for canoeing. We have wonderful state park lodges," she said. "We have an array of unusual and interesting and easy trips you can plan."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246