The Rise and Fall of Rockford, Illinois

Rockford, Illinois was once one of the great factory towns in America. It made furniture, machine tools, socks, and airplane parts. Then, in 1982, it had the highest unemployment rate in the country. This is the rise and fall of Rockford, Illinois, and the fight to bring it back that’s still happening today. We cover how a shallow river crossing became the city of Rockford in 1834, the Swedish immigrants who made it America’s second-largest furniture center, the Rockford reaper lawsuit that put Abraham Lincoln in the same room as Edwin Stanton, the machine-tool boom, Camp Grant, the Rockford Peaches, the sock monkey, the crash of the early 1980s, and the long battle over the Belvidere assembly plant. Chapters: 0:00 Rockford leads the nation in unemployment 1:16 The rock ford on the Rock River 3:04 The railroad and the Swedes 5:02 The reaper, Abraham Lincoln, and Edwin Stanton 6:27 The machine city 7:13 The Rockford Red Heel and the sock monkey 7:47 Camp Grant and the Rockford Peaches 8:25 The peak years 9:36 The crash of 1982 11:05 The long slide 12:22 The fight back 13:16 The Belvidere plant 14:17 Was the banker right? 15:41 Next time: Cairo, Illinois Subscribe for more Illinois history: the towns, the money, and the stories nobody tells. #Rockford #Illinois #IllinoisHistory