The History of Forgottonia: Bill Edley

Forgottonia is an Illinois 16-county region between the Mississippi and along the Illinois river. The region forms a western bulge with Quincy in Adams County on the most western border of Illinois on the banks of the Mississippi River.

In August of 1973, a couple dozen Western Illinois University business professionals promoted America’s 51st State --- the “State of Forgottonia.” The sole purpose was “to draw attention to the economic plight of a 16-county region in western Illinois,” “Promoters of the scheme wanted the State of Illinois to proceed with plans to construct freeways from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri, and from the Quad-Cities to St. Louis, Missouri, to attract industry to the region” and provide WIU with better access to the rest of Illinois. Forgottonia promoter, Ben Gentry, a Macomb Ford auto dealer, told Brennan that “80 percent of the industrialists won’t talk to you unless you’re located within 20 to 25 miles of an interstate highway.” They even hired an actor to be the Governor of Forgottonia, a 25-year-old Vietnam veteran and WIU fine arts senior, Neil Gamm to drum up publicity to their cause.

The Forgottonia movement didn’t get the support they needed from Quincy. Quincy’s leader’s number one transportation priority since the 1960s was getting the Central Illinois Expressway (US 72 today) from Decatur through Springfield to Hannibal, Mo, with a bypass to Quincy built. Once the CIE was fully funded in the late 1980s, Quincy promised the rest of the group that it would support funding US 67, a four-lane from the Quad-Cities through Macomb, Jacksonville and ending in the St. Louis Metro East. Instead, Quincy leaders pulled their support after they got their ambitious $600 million CIE funding and promoted spending another $300 million constructing a 4-lane highway connecting Quincy to Macomb. The Quincy-centric highway construction didn't prevent the city’s population loss overall, as U.S. economic and trade globalization policies gutted thousands of industrial jobs throughout the mid-west from the 1980s through 2010. Between 1980 and 2015, the 16 Forgottonia counties lost 16,321 manufacturing jobs --- 43% loss since 1980.

Courtesy 2023 © Bill Edley Springfield, Il. BillEdley@gmail.com, Bill Edley is a 40-year community activist, former Illinois Democratic Party State Representative and National Democratic Party Convention Delegate.

Note: Quad Cities are Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois.