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Rockford!
This city of more than 150,000 is located in the northern part of the great state of Illinois. Rockford is the third largest city in Illinois after Chicago and Aurora. Its latitude is 42° 16' North and its longitude is 89° 03' West. Rockford is located on the continent of North America in the Western Hemisphere. It is in the Centeral Time Zone. On April 6, 2009, Mayor Larry Morrissey announced the City of Rockford has received for the twentieth straight year the recognition of “Tree City USA Destination.” Rockford is also called the "City of Gardens." Do you know why Rockford's nickname is also the "Forest City?" |
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The City of Rockford
All About the City of Rockford
“We're the Forest City, where you can find affordable homes on tree-lined streets in friendly neighborhoods. Our central location, with easy access to major highways, rail service and one of the fastest growing airports in the country, makes Rockford a great location for new business development. We're the home of Illinois' largest music festival, On the Waterfront; Jane, the dinosaur, at the Burpee Museum of Natural History; and we're the hometown of the internationally-known rock group, Cheap Trick. We have a proud past and an even brighter future. We think you'll find that Rockford is a wonderful place to raise a family or grow your business. On this website, you will find information about a wide range of programs and services that we think make Rockford a great place to live, work and play.” Here you can find information about the demographics of Rockford, its history, the attractions, educational opportunities, businesses, and shopping. |
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Some Neat Data About Rockford!
From GAISMA
Here you can find:
• Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times in a table
• Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times in a graph
• Sun path diagram
• Solar energy and surface meteorology
• Basic information |
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Rockford's History
Primary Source Images
Invite students to examine these pictures from Rockford history and respond to them! |
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Rockford's Nickname Is "The Forest City"
Rockford Timeline
A timeline of Rockford's earliest years to the 1990s. What can we add to this timeliine? |
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Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
What's There to Do in Rockford?
"Welcome to Real, Original Rockford. Ours is a vibrant community with big-city amenities and a small-town feel. The City of Rockford is surrounded by many attractive towns and villages, each with its own character and appeal. This is a welcoming place dotted with green, blessed by rivers and untroubled by congestion. You can live your life here, not just watch it pass you by. If you're looking for the real, original heart of America, welcome home to the Rockford Region." On this site you can find these categories:
• Fun things to do
• A calendar of events
• Lodging
• Dining
• Virtual tours
• Meetings & tournaments
• About the Rockford region |
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Rockford Township Data
Great Graphs!
Did you know that during the years 1950 to 1959 there were 14,892 houses built in Rockford Township? That was way above the Illinois average! Here's an example of interesting information that can be found on this site: The most common places of birth for the foreign-born residents are
• Mexico (49%)
• Laos (5%)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (4%)
• Italy (4%)
• Poland (3%)
• Vietnam (3%)
• Germany (3%) |
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The All-American Girls Baseball League
A Rockford Connection!
Find out about the Rockford Peaches and the All-American Girls Baseball League. The Peaches played their home games at Beyer Field, at Seminary Street and 15th Avenue, right by Beyer School! The ticket booth is still there. |
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Rockford Unit
Curriculum Guide
New! Here is the curriculum for teaching about Rockford in Third Grade! |
Remember When: Polio Once Spread Fear Through Rock River Valley
From the Rockford Register Star
This article, originally published March 26, 1995, highlights the Polio Epidemic in Rockford during the summer of 1945... "Late July 1945 opened a time of panic in the Rock River Valley. In a four-month span, 382 polio patients were treated for polio in Winnebago County. Of these, 36 died, 80 percent of them children." |
Summer of fear, 1945
From the Rockford Register Star
"Nurse Mary Jayne Bishop knew when a child died overnight because the rhythmic roar from the polio ward sounded quieter at daybreak. A dozen iron lungs lined the end of the first-floor wing at the old County Hospital, metal barrels that huffed and puffed because the children inside them could not." Read more at this link. |
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Rockford History
From the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau
Another perspective! “Some natives and residents of Rockford who have had national impact in the 20th Century are: Julia Lathrop, associate of Jane Addams, children’s advocate, and Chief of the Children’s Bureau, U. S. Department of Labor under Taft; Kate O’Connor, women’s rights activist, labor leader, and government official; Bessica Medlar Raiche, physician and first woman to solo in an airplane (1911); Martin Johnson, photographer and explorer; Carl E. Swenson, inventor of the universal joint for automobiles and landscape painter; James H. Breasted, archaeologist and Egyptologist; Rear Admiral George J. Dufek, Antarctic explorer; General Laurence S. Kuter, participant in the Yalta Conference (1945) and commander of NORAD; Mildred F. Berry, speech pathologist and political activist; John B. Anderson., independent candidate for President of the United States in 1980; Lynn Martin, Secretary of Labor under President Ronald Reagan; Janice Voss, astronaut; Harry Forbes, world bantamweight boxing champion, 1900-03; Sammy Mandell, world lightweight boxing champion, 1926-30; Hal Carlson, National League pitcher, 1917-30; Cheap Trick, prominent rock group; Kurt Elling, jazz vocalist; actors Barbara Hale, Aidan Quinn, and Susan Saint James; Olympic medalists Janet Lynn, Ron Merriott, and Kenny Gould; novelists Paul Dale Anderson, Wayne Dundee, and Alice Beal Parsons, who sometimes use Rockford scenes and events in their work.” |
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Rockford's Sister Cities
Did You Know?
Rockford has seven Sister Cities! Check out this site for information on them to get a global perspective. Can you explain why and how these seven cities were selected to connect with Rockford in some special way? |
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Rockford, Illinois
From All Experts.com
Contents
• Geography & Climate
• Demographics
• History
• Becoming a Transportation Center
• Looking into the Future
• Rockford School System
• Miscellaneous
• Points of Interest
• Sister Cities
• External Links |
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Remember When: Teacher Follows Political Road to U.S. Labor Secretary
From the Rockford Register Star
Lynn Martin, former Rockford high school teacher, became U.S. labor secretary in 1991 under President George H.W. Bush. |
Remember When: Margie Sturgis Taught School
From the Rockford Register Star
In 1953 Margie Sturgis “became the first black full-time educator in Winnebago County. She was appointed Aug. 19, 1953, to teach fourth grade at Lincoln Park Elementary School, a now-demolished school on Rockford's west side.” |
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Remember When: Voss Logs 18.8M Miles
From the Rockford Register Star
"A former Maud Johnson and Guilford Center schools student, Janice Voss' interest in space was stimulated by a science fiction book she got in a library summer reading program after the sixth grade." |
Remember When: Rockford's Downtown Once Was World's Brightest
From the Rockford Register Star
This article, dated July 17, 2008, recalls when "25,000 packed West State and Main streets for a block in every direction to celebrate the inauguration of a lighting system that made Rockford’s downtown the brightest in the world. Miss Illinois Pat Quillen and Miss Wisconsin Angela Gina Baldi jointly flipped the switch that turned on the bright lights in 20 square blocks of the downtown business district. Businesses stayed open as late as midnight at the April 30, 1965, celebration." |
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Self-guided tour of Rockford Area Veteran Memorial Sites
From the Workforce Connection Veteran Employment Representatives
"The Rockford area has a number of significant memorials honoring our citizens with military service. Several museums display military artifacts and exhibits of local military camp history. Peace, the fervent hope of veterans of past wars, is the subject of another local site on this tour." |
Little City Big Life
Video
"Our community offers big-city amenities and a small-town feel. Learn why the Rockford Region is a great place to live, work, learn and play." Here is a short video about Rockford presented by the Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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