Mattoon/Charleston, IL
On the field at Coles County Memorial, run by the same family for more than forty years, and the home of the Elephant Ear Tenderloin: a hand-breaded pork tenderloin that overflows the plate. The other claim to fame is the hand-cut breaded fried mushrooms, made to order. The menu runs country beyond the signatures: walleye and all-you-can-eat catfish on Fridays, baby back ribs, and pies baked in-house, with model airplanes hanging from the ceiling and the real ones landing outside the windows. Open from 7 am every day but Monday; breakfast and lunch are the daily program, and dinner runs only Friday and Saturday, until 7. Pilots have been flying in for the tenderloin for decades.
Construction started 1951, formally dedicated in 1953 to the memory of the men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces who served in the Korean Conflict — the bronze plaque is still in the terminal. Two grooved asphalt runways (6,501 x 150 ft and 5,800 x 100 ft) plus a 1,080 ft sod strip, FAA Part 139 certified, between Mattoon and Charleston four miles east of town. Operated by the Coles County Airport Authority, FBO is Coles County Aviation. Non-towered. Right traffic for runways 06, 11, and 18 (grass).
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.
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.
Indiana's first state capital and the site of the most important Revolutionary War battle in the west. In 1779, George Rogers Clark marched 180 miles through flooded wilderness to surprise the British garrison here, effectively winning the Northwest Territory for the United States. The massive granite memorial (the largest outside Washington D.C.) is visible from the air along the Wabash River. Vincennes University (1801) is the oldest in Indiana.
Indiana's largest waterfall by volume — upper and lower falls in a sandstone gorge on Mill Creek. Not dramatic by Niagara standards, but the gorge itself is striking from the air, cutting a dark seam through otherwise gentle terrain. A covered bridge (one of Parke County's neighbors) sits near the upper falls. Best after heavy spring rains when the falls are running full.