Getting from Illinois to the rest of the country

[NWI_Irish96]

I count 67 counties Indiana.  Possibly the largest number of counties in any state you can get to from Illinois.

I-64: Posey, Vanderburgh, Gibson, Warrick, Spencer, Dubois, Perry, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd
I-70: Vigo, Clay, Putnam, Hendricks, Morgan, Marion, Hancock, Henry, Wayne
I-74: Vermillion, Fountain, Montgomery, Boone, Shelby, Rush, Decatur, Franklin, Ripley, Dearborn
I-80: Lake, Porter, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Elkhart, Lagrange, Steuben
US 6: Marshall, Noble, Dekalb
US 24: Newton, Jasper, White, Cass, Miami, Wabash, Huntington, Allen
US 30: Starke, Kosciuscko, Whitley
US 36: Vermillion, Parke, Madison, Randolph
US 41: Benton, Sullivan, Knox, Gibson
US 50: Daviess, Martin, Lawrence, Jackson, Jennings
US 52: Tippecanoe, Clinton
US 150: Orange, Washington

[Eth]

If I'm counting correctly, Georgia gets 22 counties, all on US 41: Echols, Lowndes, Cook, Tift, Turner, Crisp, Dooly, Houston, Peach (barely), Bibb, Monroe, Lamar, Pike, Spalding, Henry, Clayton, Fulton, Cobb, Bartow, Gordon, Whitfield, Catoosa. Only a small fraction of the total of 159 though.

EDIT: Oh, I forgot I-24 somehow ends up in Illinois also. So add Dade County, making the total 23.

[NWI_Irish96]

Illinois is connected to the southwest by US 54, US 60, US 62, and US 67, but Indiana has connections to the east and southeast via US 27, US 31, US 33, US 35, US 231, and US 421.  There are more counties in a lot of the eastern states than in the western states, and most of the states north of the 37th parallel to the west would be the same for both, the differences being US 14 and US 54.

There's a reason they call themselves "The Crossroads of America"...

I think Indiana would come close, but Illinois would still hit more.  Illinois benefits greatly by the grid violation of US 31 and US 41 crossing over each other at Nashville.  If 41 went to Alabama and 31 to Florida, Indiana would probably have more than Illinois.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky connections from Illinois, from the west:

US 51
US 60
US 62
I-24
US 45
IL 1/KY 91 (Cave-in-Rock Ferry)
IL 13/KY 56 (Shawneetown Bridge)
US 41 (via Indiana)
I-64 (via Indiana)
US 150 (via Indiana)

Off the top of my head, I think those routes will get you at least one-third of Kentucky's 120 counties. I-64 gets 12 and US 150 gets eight.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Prior to 1964 and in addition to the 13 already metioned counties, California had the following connected directly to Illinois:
US 6: Kern, Los Angeles (in addition to Inyo and Mono, which still have the route)
US 50: San Joaquin
US 60: Riverside, San Bernardino
US 66: None already mentioned (Wow, San Bernardino county surely is huge)

Oklahoma "shouldn't" share any routes with Illinois since it's on a diagonal with it, but Cairo is really far south, and US-62 is wacky, so it shares US-54 (panhandle only), US-60, and US-62.

US-60: Ellis, Dewey, Major, Garfield, Grant, Kay, Osage, Washington, Nowata, craIG, Delaware, Ottawa (12)

FTFY. Even though since that sign was replaced Craig County should be formatted normally.

[Konza]

Nobody's done Illinois, and I won't list the counties, but it looks like 91 of Illinois' 102 counties are served by Interstate or US routes.

Ohio (61/88)

Via I-90 (11):  Williams, Fulton, Lucas, Wood, Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie, Lorain, Cuyahoga, Lake, Ashtabula.
Via I-80 east of the I-90 split (4):  Summit, Portage, Trumbull, Mahoming.
Via US 6 (2):  Henry, George.
Via US 20 (1):  Huron
Via US 24 (2): Paulding, Defiance
Via US 30 (11):  Van Wert, Putnam, Allen, Hancock, Wyandot. Crawford, Richland, Ashland, Wayne, Stark, Columbiana.
Via US 36 (8):  Darke, Miami, Champaign, Union, Delaware, Knox, Coshocton, Tuscaramas.
Via US 40/I-70 (8):  Preble, Montgomery, Clark, Madison, Licking, Muskingum, Guernsey, Belmont.
Via US 50 (8):  Hamilton, Clermont, Brown, Highland, Ross, Vinton, Athens, Washington.
Via US 52 (3):  Adams, Scioto, Lawrence.
Via US 62 (3):  Fayette, Pickaway, Holmes.

[hotdogPi]

The reason I chose Illinois is because it connects to 45 of the 50 states, the most of any state.

New England:
VT, NH, ME: None
MA: US 6, US 20, I-90. 10 of 14: every county except Franklin, Essex, and the island counties of Dukes and Nantucket.
RI: 1 of 5: US 6 in Providence County only.
CT: US 6 manages to pass through 6 of 8 counties, all except Middlesex County and New London County.

By the way, you can count every county in Illinois. I said "numbered route" to clarify that I didn't mean "stretch of road without turning", and I don't think that any unnumbered roads extend very far outside the state.

[CtrlAltDel]

Nobody's done Illinois, and I won't list the counties, but it looks like 91 of Illinois' 102 counties are served by Interstate or US routes.

My count is 89, although I admit I could be mistaken. The 13 without Interstate or US routes are:

Calhoun
Crawford
Edwards
Hamilton
Hardin
Jasper
Jersey
Menard
Moultrie
Pope
Randolph
Stark
Wabash

[Konza]

I show US 40 cutting across the northwest corner of Jasper County and US 67 going through Jersey County.

[CtrlAltDel]

I show US 40 cutting across the northwest corner of Jasper County and US 67 going through Jersey County.

You're right about Jersey, which I'm not sure how I missed. But I don't think US 40 goes through Jasper, which is the non-blue-tinted county in the image below:



So, the list of Illinois counties without an Interstate or US route is:

Calhoun
Crawford
Edwards
Hamilton
Hardin
Jasper
Menard
Moultrie
Pope
Randolph
Stark
Wabash

[JREwing78]

Wisconsin (42/72)
Via I-39: Rock, Dane, Columbia, Marquette, Waushara, Portage, Marathon (7)
Via I-90 (and not on I-39): Sauk, Juneau, Monroe, La Crosse (4)
Via I-94 (and not on I-39 or I-90): Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Jefferson, Jackson, Trempealeau, Eau Claire, Dunn, St. Croix (10)
Via US-12 (and not on any above route): Walworth, Clark, Chippewa (3)
Via US-14 (and not on any above route): Iowa, Richland, Vernon (3)
Via US-41 (and not on any above route): Washington, Dodge, Fond du Lac, Winnebago, Outagamie, Brown, Oconto, Marinette (8)
Via US-45 (and not on any above route): Waupaca, Shawano, Langlade, Oneida, Vilas (5)
Via US-51 (and not on any above route): Lincoln, Iron (2)
There used to be even more counties that qualified when US-61 and US-151 briefly entered Illinois in the Dubuque area (Grant, Lafayette, Crawford, Calumet, Manitowoc)

IL/WI 35?

Also, IL/WI 78, if state routes are under consideration. That would add Lafayette, Green, and Iowa counties.

[webny99]

So, the list of Illinois counties without an Interstate or US route is:

Calhoun
Crawford
Edwards
Hamilton
Hardin
Jasper
Menard
Moultrie
Pope
Randolph
Stark
Wabash

However, the OP specified that all Illinois counties could be counted. They all have state routes, and even if those state routes don't connect to other states, they're still "numbered routes", and you're already in Illinois.

[Crown Victoria]

I believe the only connection between Illinois and Alabama is US 45, which is only good for two counties out of 67 (3%):  Mobile and Washington

Mississippi fares a bit better:

Interstate 55:  Pike, Lincoln, Copiah, Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Yazoo, Holmes, Carroll, Montgomery, Granada, Yalobusha, Panola, Tate, DeSoto
US 45:  Greene, Wayne, Clarke, Lauderdale, Kemper, Noxubee, Lowndes, Monroe, Lee, Prentiss, Alcorn
US 51 does not add any additional counties.  Total of 26 of 82 counties (32%).

[pocky]

I'm sure I missed some counties, misclicked somewhere, or even forgot about the hierarchy I meant to color them by, but my total is 1,262 of 3,108 (40.6%) Lower 48 counties or equivalents. If you take out Illinois, it's 1,171 of 3,006 (38.95%) Lower 48 counties. This is only including Interstates and U.S. Routes.

"Close calls" were handled by the Mob Rule FAQ section or a quick glance at Google Maps, so there might be some slight inaccuracies. For practical and coloring reasons, I did not include any state routes (even CKC-110) because the map is hard enough to read as it is.

National map is below. Click here for a closer look at just Illinois.

[Scott5114]

Damn, that's a hell of a first post. Way to go, man. Welcome to the forums.

[webny99]

I'm sure I missed some counties, misclicked somewhere, or even forgot about the hierarchy I meant to color them by, but my total is 1,260 of 3,108 (40.5%) Lower 48 counties or equivalents. If you take out Illinois, it's 1,169 of 3,006 (38.9%) Lower 48 counties. This is only including Interstates and U.S. Routes.
...

Damn, that's a hell of a first post. Way to go, man. Welcome to the forums.

You got that right! I've been following this thread all along and hadn't gotten around to making that map yet, and probably never would have. Thanks for showing us regulars what's up!!

[Konza]

Impressive as hell.  Thank you for your effort on this.

[hotdogPi]

Thank you! This is awesome.

[GaryV]

Pocky, you can add 2 more counties in Michigan.  US 45 goes through Gogebic and Ontonagon (2 westernmost counties in the UP).

[bassoon1986]

Well, Texas didn't win out! I was a little surprised. Counting Texas counties with US and Interstate routes, there were 1141 counties total.

Still very cool to see the long distance routes. You can see a clear I-10, I-35, and I-40.


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