Decatur is the largest city and the county seat of Macon County in the U.S. state of Illinois, with a population of 70,522 as of the 2020 Census. The city was founded in 1829 and is situated along the Sangamon River and Lake Decatur in Central Illinois. Decatur is the seventeenth-most populous city in Illinois.The city is home of private Millikin University and public Richland Community College. Decatur has an economy based on industrial and agricultural commodity processing and production, including the North American headquarters of agricultural conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland, international agribusiness Tate & Lyle's largest corn-processing plant, and the designing and manufacturing facilities for Caterpillar Inc.'s wheel-tractor scrapers, compactors, large wheel loaders, mining class motor grader, off-highway trucks, and large mining trucks.

Effingham is a city in and the county seat of Effingham County, Illinois, United States. It is in South Central Illinois. Its population was 12,511 at the 2019 census estimate. The city is part of the Effingham, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Effingham is home to a 198-foot-tall cross, The Cross at the Crossroads. The city bills itself as "The Crossroads of Opportunity" because of its location at the intersection of two major Interstate highways: I-57 running from Chicago to Sikeston, Missouri, and I-70 running from Utah to Maryland. It is also served by U.S. Route 45, which runs from Ontonagon, Michigan to Mobile, Alabama, U.S. Route 40, the historic National Road, which stretches from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Silver Summit, Utah, and Illinois routes 32 and 33 also run through the city. It is also a major railroad junction, the crossing of the Illinois Central main line from Chicago to Memphis with the Pennsylvania Railroad line from Indianapolis to St. Louis. For this reason, Effingham has a much broader range of restaurants and lodging facilities than other typical towns of its size.

Champaign (English: ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates the city was home to 88,909 people as of July 1, 2019. As of the 2010 United States Census, Champaign is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois. It is included in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area. Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign with its sister city of Urbana. Champaign is also home to Parkland College which serves about 18,000 students during the academic year. Due to the university and a number of well known technology startup companies, it is often referred to as the hub, or a significant landmark, of the Silicon Prairie. Champaign houses offices for the Fortune 500 companies Abbott, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Caterpillar, John Deere, Dow Chemical Company, IBM, and State Farm.

Logan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 30,305. Its county seat is Lincoln.Logan County comprises the Lincoln, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Springfield-Jacksonville-Lincoln, IL Combined Statistical Area.