OTTAWA, Ill. — Historic Ottawa is a two-hour drive southwest of the Loop and is Chicago’s sister city. It’s home to the first Lincoln-Douglas debate, great restaurants and so much more. Take a walk ...

The tale of how residents of Ottawa, Illinois, helped a fugitive slave escape to freedom marks a transitional phase in the state’s history, experts say, but has been largely forgotten. Historians hope ...

A postcard mailed from the United Nations headquarters in New York arrived at the post office in Ottawa, Illinois, in August. It would have been unremarkable, except it had been postmarked at 8 p.m. — ...

For decades, officials have worried the fish could wreak disaster on the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem and the ...