Illinois Route 23
State highway in northern Illinois, US
Illinois Route 23 (IL 23) is a north–south state highway in northern Illinois. It runs from IL 116 in Pontiac north to U.S. Route 14 (UL 14) south of Harvard. This is a distance of 122.77 miles (197.58 km). The highway was established in 1918 as one of the original 46 SBI routes. The routing of IL 23 has not changed since its establishment.
Route description
IL 23 is a major arterial route in rural central and north-central Illinois. It is a parallel to the Interstate 39/U.S. Route 51 (I-39/US 51) combination approximately 20 miles (32 km) west. It parallels IL 47 approximately 10 miles (16 km) east.
The road starts near downtown Pontiac and runs as the main highway north, intersecting with I-55 and former US 66. IL 23 continues as a two-lane highway from this point, turning west and running through Cornell.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Illinois Route 23” is state highway in northern Illinois, US. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Illinois, Route and State, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “state highway in northern Illinois, US” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1067860. Authority coordinates are 41.634, -88.750. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1918.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Illinois Route 23”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Illinois Route 23 primary sources, Illinois Route 23 archive and Illinois research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Illinois Route 23” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.