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| Champaign/Rantoul,
Illinois |
 Champaign
(population 67,518) and its sister city Urbana (population
36,196) were founded in 1855 and 1833, respectively, on
the Illinois Central Railroad line in east-central Illinois.
Champaign-Urbana is home of the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. With a student enrollment of approximately
38,904, UIUC is a leader in research, teaching, public
service, arts and sports. One of 37 land-grant institutions
created by Abraham Lincoln in 1862, the university’s
College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
has contributed to Illinois’s standing in crop and
animal sciences, which has in turn improved the quality
of farming in the state. The University is also well known
for its business, engineering, advanced science and technology
departments and is home to the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications. |
 Rantoul
(population 12,857) is located in northern Champaign County
about 20 miles north of Champaign-Urbana. In 1917, Rantoul
was chosen to be the site of the Chanute Air Force Base
because of its proximity to the Illinois Central railroad
and the War Department’s ground school housed at
the University of Illinois. After years of serving as
a training facility, the Base was recommended for closure
in 1988 and officially closed in 1993. The buildings that
remain serve numerous purposes ranging from a motel, a
restaurant, an aerospace museum, a manufacturing facility
and housing for migrant farm workers. |
| Each year the agricultural activities
in these towns greatly benefit from the influx of migrant
farm labors who typically arrive in July. Though most
workers are involved in detasseling corn or corn processessing
for local seed companies, other workers come for the opportunities
in the pumkin, melon or soybean fields. |
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