Day 23, September 23—Champaign

Walking around Champaign

Champaign and Urbana are cheek by jowl, so to speak. If you’re driving down a street in one, you might stray into the other without noticing. Of course if you move from one to the other, you might notice that property taxes tend to be higher in Urbana, though zoning permits residents to keep chickens there, unlike in Champaign.

The area has been dubbed the Silicone Prairie, and called one of the 10 most important cyber cities after Silicone Valley. It is also home to the land-grant university known as UIUC, or the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. (Everyone else calls it “Champaign-Urbana,” or “Champbana,” but the University of Illinois puts Urbana first.) There are two other universities with similar names—the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the University of Illinois, Springfield.

So far as I can determine, the first U of I presence in Chicago was an attendance center at Navy Pier. Later there was the Chicago Circle Campus, and finally the University of Illinois, Chicago. I remember when an acquaintance tried to talk me into enrolling at Sangamon State University to do a master’s in history. I was already planning to study at Western Illinois University in Macomb. His rationale was that the program in Springfield was ridiculously easy. I was not convinced that that was a good reason to study there, so I completed my first MA at Macomb.

Years later, Sangamon State University was in lots of trouble. I won’t go into details, but the University of Illinois took it over, revamped the courses, and saved the school, for all practical purposes. Not it is a part of the U of I family.

At the University of Illinois is the Beckman Institute, a world-renowned center for the study of such things as the human mind. I’ve participated in a couple of studies there, but always as a lab rat rather than as a researcher. Apparently they did find some brain activity in my most recent study, because they said that if they found anything life threatening, they would refer me to an appropriate medical person. 

Rob with Friend and Researcher Nils Schneider

Search for Evidence of Brain Activity at Beckman

The fiberoptic cables alone cost thousands.

View from Back of Head
The Leopard Skin Is Not Real. No Split Ends, Either

Urbana was settled before Champaign was. In fact Champaign was first named “West Urbana,” and it was settled when the Illinois Central Railroad extended its tracks 2 miles west of downtown Urbana. In 1860, Champaign was chartered as a city and chose the name Champaign (for both city and county) from Champaign, in Champaign County in Ohio.

Urbana is named after Urbana, Ohio. (Right at that time there apparently was a fire sale on Ohio town names.) Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County. The first house was built there in about 1822, followed by 2 hotels and a saw mill, which was eventually washed away by Salt Fork. (Note that there are two separate streams in Illinois that are named “Salt Creek,” and this is neither of them, but yet a different stream.) Both the first hotel and the first mill were built by Colonel Charles Busey, who arrived in 1831 from Kentucky by way of Indiana.

The first flour mill was built in 1838 by a man named Heptenstall. It was also built on the creek, and it was also washed away. Both flood-destroyed mills were replaced by a steam-powered saw and flour mill.

Champaign County was organized in 1833. Bloomington wanted the county seat near them, and they bought some land, platted a town, and named the place Byron. Colonel Busey had been in the area of present-day Champaign-Urbana since 1831, and he offered the county 40 acres to establish a town to serve as county seat. The county commissioners chose Busey’s land as the site for the county seat. They chose the name Urbana for the new town.

Unlike Colonel Busey, I first settled in Champaign in 1998, right after I married Mary. Also unlike him, I never attained the rank of an officer, but earned only the rank of first sergeant before leaving the military. My research has turned up another major difference between us: my family did not start a bank. Also, when Colonel Busey wanted to cross Illinois, I can find no evidence that he walked, pushing a bicycle with a flag mounted on it.

On Thursday morning, bright and early (okay, just bright, at 8:00), I started walking east on Springfield Avenue. On some Illinois roads, when one comes to the end of a numbered route, there is a sign that says, “end of route so and so.” If there is such a sign coming into Champaign on Route 10, I somehow missed it. Also walking on Thursday was more about showing the flag than about covering a lot of distance.

I had an interview with WCIA’s own Marissa Torres and a very professional videographer, whose name has slipped out of my 65-year-old brain (sorry, sir). I walked and biked in opposite direction for several hours, and I got to shake hands with and thank a number of veterans, most of whom wondered why I was pushing a bike sporting an American Flag.

As is usual for a television interview, I pronounced and spelled my name. Notwithstanding, the newsperson who announced the video clip of my walk at 7:10 a.m. or so mispronounced Siedenburg. At no additional cost, I’m going to provide a brief tutorial about the pronunciation of German words and names. If the letters ei occur, pronounce the second letter long (ī). If the letter pair ie occurs, pronounce the second letter long (ē).

It’s interesting that in the Quincy area, there are enough German family names that no one mispronounced my name. Right here in my own town, my last name has been mispronounced on several media outlets. Of course if that is the worst thing that happens to me on this trip, I’ll certainly survive, and I know that mispronunciations are not conducted with malice aforethought.

The other exciting event of Thursday (exciting to me, that is; this is my blog, remember) was a job interview. So my retirement may be coming to an end. We shall see. The job, should it materialize, promises new challenges, primarily the teaching of English to Chinese executives. Please stay tuned.

If you live in the Champaign area, and if you’d like to walk a ways with me, your big chance will come on Saturday morning, when I plan to walk east on University Avenue, leaving Neil Street at 8:00. Or you can stay at home to find out whether that makes the news.