Chicagoland

Chicagoland is the preferred name for the Chicago metropolitan area and locally has the standing of an official name. Chicagoland includes the City of Chicago at its core and encompasses smaller cities and suburban communities located in nine surrounding counties in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Newcomers to the area are often surprised to learn that the seemingly quaint term is not a mere nickname. Indeed, Chicagoland is virtually the only term local residents, businesses, governments, and planning agencies will use to refer to the metropolitan area. Locally, the term "Chicago metropolitan area" is rarely heard, and will likely have locals wondering why the speaker didn't simply say Chicagoland, instead. The term originated in the pages of the Chicago Tribune in the 1900s.

Origin

The publisher of the Chicago Tribune, Colonel Robert R. McCormick, was an inveterate civic booster. In his view, Chicagoland was the vast region in the center of the country, with Chicago as its economic and cultural capital. In many ways, what McCormick envisioned as Chicagoland is now described by the term flyover country.

Related Topics:
Robert R. McCormick - Flyover country

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The original impetus for the term is long forgotten; the meaning of Chicago metropolitan area is largely perpetuated by advertisers, e.g. "See your Chicagoland Ford dealer".

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