Editing Boone County, Illinois (section)

==History==
Unlike most of Illinois, much of [[Northern Illinois]] was not submerged in a [[Western Interior Seaway|shallow prehistoric sea]]. As a result, bedrock found in the area now bounded as Boone County is almost entirely [[Ordovician]], as opposed to nearby counties like [[McHenry County, Illinois|McHenry]] and [[Carroll County, Illinois|Carroll]] which contain large areas of later [[Silurian]] bedrock. [[Till]] and [[outwash]] from the [[Illinoian glaciation]] covers area bedrock to a depth of several hundred feet. The county's proximity to the [[driftless area]] protected the region somewhat from the more recent [[Wisconsin glaciation]]. As a result, the county's northern townships resemble a driftless-like area, with higher peak elevations and more surface detail compared to the southern townships dominated by the broad flood plains of the [[Kishwaukee River]] and its tributaries.

By the time of the first identified human settlements, the region was made up of thickly wooded forested hills and grassy prairie plains. Archeological study at the [[Koster Site]] seems to indicate that humans had established complex societies ten thousand years ago along the river basins of the Illinois and Mississippi. By the time of European exploration, [[Upper Mississippian culture]] collapsed; westward expansion forced many [[Algonquin language|Algonquin]]-speaking nations into conflict with each other as they moved after encroachment of their lands. [[Potowatomi]] and [[Mascouten]] tribes were still living in the region when white settlers arrived and statehood was declared in 1818.

As a political institution, Boone County was formed on March 3, 1836, out of [[Winnebago County, Illinois|Winnebago County]]. It was named for [[Kentucky]] frontiersman [[Daniel Boone]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_lKAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA12 | title=History of the Origin of the Place Names in Nine Northwestern States | year=1908 | pages=12}}</ref>
The first non-Native American settlers arrived in what is now Boone County in 1835. They arrived as a result of the end of the [[Black Hawk War]] as well as the completion of the [[Erie Canal]]. They consisted entirely of settlers from [[New England]]. These were "[[Yankee]]" settlers, that is to say they were descended from the [[English people|English]] [[Puritans]] who settled [[New England]] in the colonial era. They were primarily members of the [[Congregational church|Congregational Church]] though due to the [[Second Great Awakening]] many of them had converted to [[Methodism]] and some had become [[Baptists]] before coming to what is now Boone County. When the [[New England]] settlers arrived in what is now Boone County there was nothing but a dense virgin forest and wild prairie. In the late 1870s immigrants began arriving from [[Germany]] and [[Ireland]].<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FTRGAAAAYAAJ&dq=The+Past+and+Present+of+Boone+County%2C+Illinois&pg=PR1 The Past and Present of Boone County, Illinois]''. Chicago: H. F. Kett & Company, 1877, p. 226.</ref>
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File:Boone County Illinois 1837.png|Boone County at the time of its creation in 1836
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