Posted on 05/05/2013 12:32:15 PM PDT by mdittmar
This is the Illinois that many people never see — the sparsely populated southern tip where flat farmland gives way to rolling hills, rocky outcrops, thick forests and cypress swamps.
Blacktopped county roads wend through no-stoplight towns. Locals speak in soft drawls and talk of generations who've lived on the same land or in the same villages. The remote and rugged Shawnee National Forest attracts hikers, campers and horseback riders, and offers a stark contrast to the rest of a state that largely has been plowed, paved or suburbanized.
But many here are beginning to brace for change as the Illinois Legislature considers regulations that could set off a rush among energy companies to drill deep in the southern Illinois bedrock for oil and natural gas. The crews would be using a process known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," that has transformed the landscape in places like North Dakota and Pennsylvania.
After drilling intensively in a handful of states in the Midwest and Southwest in the last few years, the industry is now preparing to push into new territory, hoping to tap deposits long considered out of reach. Residents here — and some in New York and California that also are part of this next frontier — have heard the angry clamor over fracking elsewhere, but most have little experience with the oil industry.
Already, drillers have leased hundreds of thousands of acres throughout southern Illinois, including in scenic Johnson and Pope counties, which hasn't seen conventional drilling and people aren't sure what to expect if a fracking rush becomes a reality.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjstar.com ...
The Louden Field was the savior of WWI before the Big Inch line was built from Texas.
Carmi, Illinois. Used to be operated by Exxon. Don’t know about now.
Wow..Cave in Rock brought back some memories. Went there as a little kid. My uncle tried to teach my wimpy little self how to swim there.
I haven’t been back to S.I. in many, many years (although that is where my my family is from). I would almost hate to go back...it would destroy the memories as I remember them as a child. It may not be as beautiful as I remember. :)
What I see on the internet (so it must be true, lol) once the coal mines shut down..the whole area went down. My whole family were coal miners.
Maybe this will bring some much needed employment to the area.
Big Gushers? Been a looooong time since any Gushers were in Texas.
I hope they didn’t try to teach in that huge river, I was back there two years ago and NOTHING has changed. My grandmothers house was LEANING and folks were living in it The old Motel is STILL open...to weird... we went to Elizabethtown and Rosiclare..My 95 year old aunt lives in Elizabethtown. Stopped by to see her. One year as a child we had a white Christmas there...very nice for a California kid...My family mined for Fluorite
It was in the river.
But...this was back in the days before an uncle could be prosecuted for child abuse for tossing his very little non-swimming neice into a river, lol. I could probably still dog paddle around the world if I had to. :)
Glad to hear things haven’t changed too much. My family was from a little further north..Carrier Mills. We were just at Cave In Rock to fish, picnic..and try not to drown. They are all gone now so I think, like I said, I’ll leave those memories intact.
In fairness to my uncle..he taught me a lot. He would take me hunting and how to clean the kill. Taught me how to mow the yard on a Gravely riding mower. How to garden. How to drive a standard transmission (sitting on his lap ‘cause my legs weren’t long enough to reach the brake/accelerater/clutch.)
All of those things would be frowned upon today..if he weren’t arrested!
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