Marion is a rapidly-growing interstate community in southern Illinois. Marion is booming, having almost doubled its physical size in the last two decades and recently added a new minor league baseball stadium and more. As the county seat for Williamson County, Marion is a governmental hub, with a state office building and the region's Veterans Affairs Hospital as other major employers. Pepsi bottling and insurance processing are the other two big industries in town. And don't forget Marion's biggest claim to fame: John Gotti and Pete Rose both served prison sentences here.
Instructions
1. Take Interstate 57 from just about any point in Illinois and keep heading south until the rustic Dixie air starts to invade the car. Marion is south of the Mason-Dixon Line at the junction of Illinois 13 and Interstate 57. At the intersection, take the east exit off the interstate to hit the old parts of town or the western exit to visit The Hill, Marion's thriving new interstate community with hotels, restaurants, home improvement stores, car dealerships and the new baseball stadium, built in 2006.
2. Catch a game at Miner's Stadium. The Southern Illinois Miners are an independent minor league baseball team, meaning that they are not a farm team for any of the major league clubs. This is baseball at its finest: players playing for love of the game and a chance to move up to the majors some day. Tickets are less than $10 each and promotions at the ball field vary from day to day, but on Friday nights, the Marion sky is lit up with the Friday night fireworks all summer long.
3. Grab a Pepsi, or tour aPepsi bottling facility. About six blocks south of the stadium on Main Street near the corner of Halfway road is the Pepsi Mid-America Bottling Company. One of the largest bottling facilities in the region, Pepsi makes many of its trademark drinks here. A mile or so away in the Marion industrial park, you can find Crisp Container Company where they make the bottles for many Pepsi products.
4. From Pepsi, head east on Main Street until you reach the clock tower. The clock tower sits in the center of Marion's town square, the only remnant of the old courthouse that was torn down in the 1970s. At foot of the clock tower, check out the tornado memorial. In May, 1982, an F-5 tornado wiped out several miles of town including car dealerships, several stores, an apartment complex and McKinnley Elementary School. The tornado hit at 3 p.m. the day after school dismissed for the summer. The memorial lists the names of the 10 people who died.
5. Take Court Street, also known as Illinois 37, about 3 miles south of town to find the road to the old Marion Federal Penitentiary and work camp. Once this was the nation's most secure prison, spending more than a decade on 23-hour a day lockdown schedule and housing notorious criminals, from Manuel Noriega to John Gotti. Pete Rose served his time at the work camp.
6. Drive past the prison to the west to the intersection with Illinois 148 and then head north to enjoy the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is partially an old munitions manufacturing site from World War II and now offers some of the best hunting in the region. Wild turkeys, bald eagles, bobcats, deer, ducks and geese call the refuge home at least part of the year. Fishing in the refuge's lakes and ponds is a nice way to spend a summer morning, with sailboats and houseboats preferred during the hot summer midday.
Tags: clock tower, baseball stadium, Gotti Pete, Gotti Pete Rose, interstate community