State narrows its list of 'Seven Wonders' nominees.
By Amanda St. Amand
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Tuesday, Feb. 20 2007
 

And then there were four — not the Final Four in the world of basketball but the final four attractions from the Metro East vying to be named one of the "Seven Wonders" of Illinois.

The state Board of Tourism came up with the idea of getting people to pick
their favorite attractions in Illinois. After taking thousands of nominations
last month, the state posted the finalists on its website (enjoyillinois.com).
Not all of the nominees made it to finalist status. "We had some nominations
that were just funny, like a two-story outhouse," said one of the agency's
helpful but not allowed-to-be-quoted officials.

Voting opened earlier this month, and on Monday the tourism agency knocked out
half of the eight remaining contenders from each region of the state. Here in
the Southwest region, which includes Madison and St. Clair counties, that meant
so long to the Piasa Bird mural in Alton and the Fort de Chartres historic site
in Prairie du Rocher. Pere Marquette State Park got the heave-ho, and so did
the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows.

Still in the running were the top vote-getter, Cahokia Mounds, along with the
World's Largest Catsup Bottle in Collinsville, the Great Rivers Scenic Byway in
Alton and the dark horse of the field, the Centralia Carillon. "I think they
must have gotten everybody in Centralia to vote for it," said Bill Iseminger,
assistant manager at Cahokia Mounds.

Not that he harbors any ill will toward the carillon, which is an instrument
made of 65 bells and rising 165 feet over downtown Centralia. But the bells
were only cast in France in 1982 and 1983, while

Cahokia Mounds holds the remains of an ancient city that dates to 700 A.D. If
you voted strictly on longevity, Cahokia Mounds would be unstoppable. Iseminger
said Monday he will do everything he can to help the Mounds emerge as the top
attraction for the Southwest region.

"I've been doing some e-mailing from here to members of our society and our
archaeological groups to encourage them to vote for us," he said. Nothing wrong
with a little get-out-the-vote effort.

Carlo Van Ulft, the carillonist director, is doing the same thing on his end.
The carillon's success in the voting so far "comes from the people of
Centralia, who have been voting like crazy. And they've been getting people all
around the country and their family and friends and associates to vote, too,"
he said.

The Centralia carillon has never had the exposure it has received from being
considered as one of the "Seven Wonders." Even though it's one of the largest
instruments of its kind, "lots of people don't know it, even people in town
don't know what they have," Van Ulft said. If the carillon advances to the next
round — each of the seven regions will have their fields narrowed to two
finalists next Monday — Van Ulft knows he will face tough competition. He said
he expects Cahokia Mounds to be one of the finalists. "It's very difficult to
compete with Cahokia Mounds. It's a beautiful site," he said.

Judy DeMoisy, best known as the Catsup Bottle Lady in Collinsville, let out a
big "woo-hoo!" when told the bottle had made the final four. She offered plenty
of reasons for the success of the 170-foot tall water tower. "It's
all-American, it's red, white and blue, everybody relates to catsup and there's
absolutely no controversy associated with it," she said.

People who want to see how their favorite attraction is faring can look at the
results online — for now. After someone votes, the website shows which
attraction is in the lead. But once the field is narrowed to two next week, the
results will be kept secret until April 30, when the "Seven Wonders" are
unveiled.

No plans are under way for a big voting effort for the catsup bottle. "We hope
it does fine, but we're not going to spend a lot of time worrying about it,"
she said.

That's admirable, and that's how all the finalists from across the
state should behave. Just like the movie stars do when they don't win an
Academy Award. They always say it's an honor just to be nominated. Even if
they're lying, it sounds like the right thing to say.