"Destination Heartland" by Cynthia Clampitt

Cynthia Clampitt wants you to explore the Midwest. Her new book, “Destination Heartland,” serves as a guide to places of interest and foods of interest in a 12-state region.“The region sometimes called ‘flyover country’ offers a multitude of great places to land,” she said. Now you might find an entire volume of Midwestern attractions that Clampitt didn’t include. She makes no claims to this being either all-inclusive or to serve as a definitive listing.But what Clampitt covers is a number of historic attractions from Illinois and 11 Midwestern states, chronicling places she has personally visited.Ah the Midwest: “It was ‘Little House on the Prairie’ and the Pony Express. It was the birthplace of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Antonin Dvorak’s ‘New World Symphony (both in 1890s Iowa). It gave us revolutionary farm equipment, but also gave us the first airplanes (the Wright Brothers lived in Ohio) and cheap cars (thank you Mr. Ford). It was and is a place where wide-open spaces led to big ideas,” notes Clampitt, a big fan of living history venues.One she cites is Conner Prairie, just outside Indianapolis, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum. Another is Living History Farms in Urbandale, Iowa while Cahokia Mounds, near St. Louis, offers up a museum Clampitt calls amazing.“Destination Heartland” also includes a nice little history where I learned about the Prairie Traveler, the bestselling manual published in 1859, that served as the pioneer’s guide to the west, how to fix your wagon and all that.Clampitt adds another touch to her history survey: food. She makes a point of visiting the oldest restaurant, hotel or tavern in many of the places she visits and it's a move that seems to pay off.  If the Village Tavern of Long Grove (35 miles NW of Chicago) is still in business since it opened in 1847, chances are they know what they're doing.