What do you do to energize students who might be disenchanted with their rural surroundings?
If you’re Joe Brewer, a history teacher at Cuba High School, you develop a website with students to celebrate the accomplishments, past and present, of western Illinois.
Brewer seized on the concept of Forgottonia, a description devised in the 1960s and 1970s to represent the rural region of western Illinois that felt it was being ignored by state and federal governments.
The Forgottonia Project seeks to honor the rich history of rural western Illinois, noted Brewer, referring to the website started by students and teachers at Cuba High School “to examine the social, economic and political problems we face.”
Forgottonia refers to the tongue-in-cheek movement during the 1970s started when rural residents in western Illinois felt policymakers were ignoring their region in favor of larger metropolitan areas, said Brewer. Frustration among citizens and public officials of western Illinois grew as regional transportation and infrastructure projects failed to develop, he said.
While Forgottonia made light of the region’s “have-not” status, highlighted by Neal Gamm taking on the position of “governor” back in the 70s, Brewer said the present effort has a serious point. “Lots of teens want to leave their hometown but we’ve seen the high-school population steadily decline here over the years,” he said.
“We look at the Forgottonia Project as an exercise in awareness If (young people) are going to stay, they need to know more about the place they live,” said Brewer.
Counties involved in the western Illinois project include Fulton, Hancock, Knox, McDonough, Schuyler and Warren counties, he said.
The Forgottonia Project contains stories, photographs, drawings, podcasts and blogs, many created by the students, themselves, said Brewer.
Forgottonia is being recalled in other ways these days. Along with a craft beer called Forgottonia Brewing in Macomb, the Macomb Area Convention and Visitors Bureau is promoting events and activities across western Illinois as "Unforgettable Forgottonia" while also recalling some of the area’s history.
“We rebranded Macomb visitor efforts as Unforgettable Forgottonia about three years ago but then covid hit so we’re just getting that message back out there,” said executive director Jock Hedblade.
