How many states does Illinois border?
Illinois is technically separated from Iowa and Michigan by water,
does it border both, one, or neither?

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Apr 2005 20:31 PDT

vandro-ga,

The boundaries between states are rather precisely defined, and it
makes little difference whether the border runs on land or through
water.  As an example, you can distinctly see the Illiois borders in
Lake Michigan in the center of this topographic map:


http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=17&Z=16&X=19&Y=183&W=3&qs=%7cwaukegan%7cil%7c

Thus, Illinois borders six states, as has been noted below.  

Do you need any information beyond this, or is the information you
have already -- that there are indeed six states that share a border
with Illinois -- adequate as an answer to your question?

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Clarification of Question by vandro-ga on 19 Apr 2005 22:38 PDT

A young child from Maryland posed the question to me in a letter. A
geography question that is a bit tricky.

Thanks for the answer, with the comments also, I have a reasonable
basis to give six states and why.

I have not done this before; my question is answered. Thanks.

I found this in an EPA document:

"Since Illinois borders six other states, it is important to take
these facts into consideration."

http://www.epa.state.il.us/air/section-910-report/section-910-report.pdf

This Illinois History, Geography and Government quiz asks the
question: Which five states border Illinois? Those states would be
Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana.

www.cyberdriveillinois.com/ publications/pdf_publications/ard1294.pdf

Then there's this item from Wikipedia:

Illinois also borders Michigan, but only via a water boundary in Lake Michigan.

It all boils down to semantics: does Pennsylvania also border
Michigan, because they share a water boundary in Lake Erie?

The Illinois official website ( http://www.illinois.gov/facts/geography.cfm )
lists Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Kentucky, Missouri, & Wisconsin as the
states bordering Illinois.

You have to look at water boundaries, as pointed out by Wikipedia.  Illinois
controls a section of the Mississippi River, just as Missouri, etc.  State
boundaries actually extend into rivers and lakes.

Vandro --

Denco is precisely correct.  A silly example: a close friend of mine
could not get married aboard a boat in the Potomac because his rabbi
was licensed in Virginia but not in the District of Columbia nor
Maryland.  (A prize if you can guess the solution!)

For Michigan and Illinois the issue is very relevant.  Should one
state allow casino gambling, its boats would have to be careful not to
stray beyond state lines.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Of course the river boundaries count as borders, otherwise there would
be a "no-man's-land" between them.  SOmeone could search and probably
find a definition of these river boundaries, probably that they run
equidistant from the actual shorelines, which can change, hence the
practicality of a definition that allows for this.