Illinois County Highpoints - A Compendium

John Mitchler

Champaign - Yankee Ridge

Date: December 27, 2000

In east-central Illinois, this single area is northwest of Champaign along the interstate at a radio tower. Between Champaign and Mahomet, take Exit 174 off I-74, Pairieview Road. Go south for a hundred feet to a stoplight at US150, noting the McDonalds to your right (sitting all by itself in the farm country). Turn left (east) on US150 and go 2.6 miles to Lindsey Road and turn left (north). If you go too far, you'll see the Grandview Cemetery on your left. Go 1.1 miles north on Lindsey Road, crossing over I-74. Turn right (east) on Gold Finch Road which is not on the topo. The road on the topo that goes to the south side of the radio tower is no longer used. Instead, drive Gold Finch 0.3 miles to the tower access road on your right (south). The well-groomed land around the tower makes it easy to identify the highest land.

The BM (Bellinger 1934) is located to the right (west) of the access road and is buried six inches into the prairie sod. A wooden stake marks it. This cohp is located on Yankee Ridge, a moraine of the Wisconsin glaciation which smoothed out the already flat Illinois landscape. I took a map of Illinois which shows glacial moraines and I plotted the IL cohp's on it. There is some interesting correlation, obviously.