Where have timbered areas crucial in state's settlement gone?

With a sweltering sun high overhead and the air thick and stifling, David and Jane Patton cup their hands over their eyes and look out over the vast prairie.

In the distance, perhaps 5 miles away – it is difficult to tell – is a timbered area. The couple and their children, along with two cows, four horses, chickens and turkeys, aim their wagons at the prairie grove. This timbered area around the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River in northeastern Champaign and southeastern Ford County, known as Sugar Grove, will be where they will build their log cabin.

Also on this date

• Westville couple killed in head-on crash in Edgar County
• Schools statewide try to solve deficiencies with no road map
• Child using lighter causes fire in Champaign house
• Man sought in sexual assault attempt on UI campus
• Restructuring effort moves ahead at Urbana High School
• Champaign County ballot funding question put on hold
• 16-year-old dancing phenom creating her own moves
• Summer language institute at UI immerses students in Africa
• Obituaries

» More