"Illinois Trails & Traces" by Gary Marx and Dan Overturf

Illinois is a state that brings a lot of variety and history to the table. "Illinois Trails & Traces" is proof of that.Author Gary Marx and Dan Overturf team up to provide unique portraits of people and places across the state.Marx is a journalist who worked for numerous newspapers including the Southern Illinoisian in Carbondale, Ill. and the Kansas City Star in Kansas City, Mo. Sadly, Marx passed away at the age of 70 in December 2022.Overturf is the professor emeritus of photography at Southern Illinois University where he taught for 30 years.The pair combined on a previous book, "A River Through Illinois," published in 2007.This time around Marx and Overturf are on the trail for interesting characters and they find them, beautifully photographed by Overturf, with fascinating passages from Marx who knows how to get his point across in a succinct manner that allows one to sail through the book.Overturf told Steve Tarter that he set up photographs of the individuals in the book the old-fashioned way, using lights and staging them in an environment that showcases their interest or work. You'll think you know these people after you read about them and view the pictures.Backroads and byways come back to life in a book that sheds new light on sites from Cahokia Mounds to Galena,