Interstate 55 Driving Tour: St. Louis, MO to Springfield, IL

Interstate 55 between St. Louis and Springfield looks like an ordinary highway, but the ground beneath it hides abandoned coal mines, vanished towns, and a buried meteorite. On this driving tour, you'll learn how coal shaped small Illinois towns along the way. You'll also hear about Route 66 relics and the road's ties to Abraham Lincoln.

The tour starts at a gas station on Chouteau Avenue in St. Louis, just before the on-ramp onto Interstate 55. From there, you'll cross the Mississippi River into Illinois, passing the site of the 1917 East St. Louis race riot, the ancient earthworks of Cahokia Mounds, and the fields where half the world's horseradish is grown. You'll also learn how the Illinois prairie once stretched across thousands of square miles before farmland replaced it.

Along the way, you'll pass Route 66 icons like the Church of the Neon Cross and the Ariston Café, hear how Mother Jones organized coal miners, and learn why a meteorite once crashed through a Benld garage roof. You'll also find out how glaciers and ancient river deltas shaped the coal, oil, and farmland beneath the highway. The tour ends at the Rail Splitter Rest Area in Springfield, named for Lincoln's nickname as a rail-splitting laborer.

On this 120-minute, 100-mile driving tour, you'll have a chance to:

• See the Gateway Geyser, one of the world's tallest fountains, shooting water as high as the Gateway Arch
• Learn how a Cold War missile silo near Fruit Road once stood ready to intercept Soviet bombers
• Cross the 90th line of longitude, marking the exact midpoint of the Western Hemisphere
• Hear how the ill-fated Donner Party's westward journey began at a farm just outside Springfield
• See Carlinville's Million Dollar Courthouse and its neighborhood of Sears catalog homes
• Find out why red barns get their color from atoms forged inside dying stars
• Learn how Lake Springfield was hand-dug in the 1930s to secure the city's water supply

By the time you reach the Rail Splitter Rest Area, you'll know exactly how coal, corn, and one tall rail-splitter shaped this stretch of Illinois.