Danville, IL
Danville institution since 1949 and the original stand the Jarling's custard line grew from. Walk-up windows, six flavors made fresh daily (lemon is the signature), and cold fudge invented here so hot fudge wouldn't melt the custard. Courtesy car at the field.
Opened in 1948 as Vermilion County Airport; scheduled airline service ran through the 1950s and 60s on Ozark and Lake Central, with Allegheny Commuter flights into the 1970s. Now a general-aviation regional just across the Illinois line from western Indiana, working nightly Part 135 air cargo and aerial agriculture. Extensive glider operations on weekends. The long runway, 03/21, handles most of the traffic.
Deep sandstone gorges carved by Sugar Creek over millions of years. The old-growth forest here was never logged — some trees are 300+ years old. From 2000ft, the gorge system appears as dark shadows cutting through solid canopy. Sugar Creek itself makes dramatic S-curves visible from above. The suspension bridge is hard to spot but look for the clearing at the nature center.
Benton County holds one of the densest concentrations of wind turbines east of the Mississippi. The Fowler Ridge project alone spreads 355 turbines across roughly 42,000 acres, with the neighboring Meadow Lake and Hoosier farms adding hundreds more. Built in phases beginning in 2008, the turbines turn the flat northwest-Indiana farmland into a working machine landscape — and a navigational one, their white towers and slow-turning blades visible for miles in clear air.
31 historic covered bridges — more than any county in the US. The Bridgeton Bridge (1868) and Mansfield Bridge are the most photogenic from the air. At 2000ft AGL in mid-October, the hardwood canopy surrounding each bridge turns orange and crimson. The annual Covered Bridge Festival draws 1 million visitors. The bridge cluster is concentrated between Turkey Run and Raccoon Lake along Sugar Creek and Big Raccoon Creek.
The 1898 octagonal study where Civil War general and Mexican Ambassador Lew Wallace wrote much of Ben-Hur — at the time the best-selling American novel ever, eventually adapted into multiple films including the 1959 Charlton Heston classic that won 11 Oscars. The study is a National Historic Landmark with Wallace's original desk, books, and sword collection. Wallace was a fascinating polymath: lawyer, general at Shiloh, governor of New Mexico Territory (he negotiated with Billy the Kid), ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and author. The ornate Italianate study reflects his global eye. Adjacent to Wabash College campus.