part of the 1971 "Illinois Service" initiative and is partially funded by the Illinois Department of Transportation. Forgottonia counties These are the 16 counties from Neal Gamm's original list. These Illinois county governments joined the movement in 1972. The unincorporated village of Bernadotte, in Fulton County, which is four miles north of Ipava on the Spoon River, has the distinction of having once been considered as the site for the capital of Illinois, prior to the capital being located at Vandalia in 1820. Vandalia was selected over Bernadotte by the difference of one vote. The 2010 US Census population of Forgottonia (16 counties) is 354,709 residents. Transportation projects and proposals since 1972 Avenue of the Saints (1956, 1991−2010) An Avenue of the Saints (St. Paul, Minnesota to St. Louis, Missouri) Expressway was proposed in 1955 during the formation of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. That route would have followed U.S. Route 61 from St. Paul through La Crosse, Wisconsin, and Dubuque, Iowa, to Davenport, Iowa, and then following U.S. Route 67 from Davenport through western Illinois crossing the new Clark Bridge at Alton to St. Louis. This routing would have been along U.S. Route 67, the major north–south arterial highway in the Western Illinois region. The Mississippi River barge companies raised political objections for a new federally funded competitor. This route was not selected in 1956. In the 1980s, this north–south arterial highway for an Avenue of the Saints was revived by Mt. Pleasant, Iowa elected officials, led by Ernie Hayes, owner of a local insurance agency, with support from the state of Missouri, led by Dick Gephardt, House majority leader in 1989. Future Iowa governor and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack, mayor of Mt. Pleasant from 1987 to 1992, was a strong supporter. This highway proposal was included as Corridor 2 in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (Public Law 102–240; ISTEA, pronounced "Ice-Tea") as a high priority North-South NAFTA corridor. By the end of 1989, four possible routes for the Avenue of the Saints were under consideration by the Federal Highway Administration. Two of the rejected routes would have followed U.S. Route 52 and U.S. Route 63 from St. Paul through Rochester, Minnesota, to Waterloo, Iowa. The other route rejected was the 1955 proposed route following U.S. Route 67 through the heart of the Forgottonia region. In 1990, the FHWA chose