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Rockford

Rockford is located in northern Illinois in Winnebago County and is the county seat. It lies about 50 miles northwest of Chicago and about 20 miles south of the Wisconsin border. The city stradles the Rock River.

In 1834, former New Englanders started a village on a shallow, rock-strewn stretch of the river, which was relatively easy to ford. They christened their settlement "Midway Village"--it was halfway between Galena, at the time a mining boomtown near the Mississippi River, and Chicago. The town had grown by 1837 and was renamed Rockford.

Today, Rockford is a multicultural community of about 150,000 people with roots in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Just as in the 1800s, the manufacturing sector is the Rockford area's largest employer. Companies manufacture precision cutting tools, fasteners, aerospace components, machine parts and automobiles, among other things.

The city is home to Rock Valley College, Rockford College and Saint Anthony College of Nursing.

Scenic Riverfront Museum Park is an ongoing restoration project.


Education Rockford College |
Restaurants, Cafes, Delis, Bakeries Cafe Patou | Lighthouse Cafe | Vickers Restaurant |
History Time Museum |
Motels, Hotels and Resorts Best Western Colonial Inn Motor Lodge |
Residential and Commercial Real Estate Dale Silberhorn Realtor | John Dowd and Diane Leggero Realtors | Johnson and Maurer Realtors | Malcolm Payne Realtor | Pine Hill Woodcrafts | Sandy Tower Realtor | Tim Jensen Realtor |
Shopping Annie's Gifts and Home Accents | B. Sanfield Jeweler and Florist | Busch Jewelers | Crafters Mall | Fantasy Glassworks |
Sports and Sporting Events Forest City Scuba |
Transportation Cottonwood Airport |

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