What’s a native vine that can cover a trellis or fence with June flowers the purply-blue color of a country sky just before dawn? Wisteria, that’s what. Specifically, it’s American wisteria ...

Standing on the edge of a 300-foot limestone bluff in southern Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest, Machaela Sweeney could thank the perfect words she typed into ChatGPT for bringing her to the ...

I had no idea that southern Illinois looked like that.” A growing number of visitors are discovering downstate as a travel destination amid recent efforts to entice more people to visit its lush ...