Wilmington, IL

Wilmington sits about 60 miles southwest of Chicago along the Kankakee River in Will County. Take I-55 south to Exit 241, then Route 53 into town. The city of 5,500 anchors the Illinois and Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor, where historic waterways once linked the Great Lakes to the Mississippi. You can still visit Wilmington Island downtown, a man-made island created when workers dug the canal in the 1840s.