Tourism
The Mendota Sweet Corn Festival attracts thousands of visitors each August; it features a parade, carnival, beer garden with live bands, free sweet corn cooked in a vintage steam engine, and other special events. The city closes down several streets in the downtown area to host the annual event which is sponsored by Del Monte Foods. The Mendota Tri-County Fair is held every Labor Day weekend at the Mendota Fairgrounds. The fair hosts a carnival, beer garden, and several other events.
The city has two man made lakes, Lake Mendota and Lake Kakusha, used for boating and fishing. Mendota also maintains a community swimming pool as well as several parks including Snyders Grove, a 104-acre (0.42 km2) reserve/park.
Mendota also has 3 museums. The Hume-Carnegie Museum showcases artifacts of local history including items manufactured in Mendota as well as a small collection pertaining to Wild Bill Hickock who was born in nearby Troy Grove. The Union Depot Railroad Museum houses the current Amtrak station, several vintage railroad artifacts as well as actual train cars from the 30s and 40s. The Breaking the Prairie Museum is a small barn replica showcasing a rotating display with one large item (a vintage tractor or large item of farm husbandry) and several smaller items.
Read more about this topic: Mendota, Illinois
Famous quotes containing the word tourism:
“In the middle ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion.”
—Robert Runcie (b. 1921)