[4] Due to the university and a number of technology startup companies, it is often referred to as a hub of the Illinois Silicon Prairie.

Champaign was founded in 1855, when the Illinois Central Railroad laid its rail track two miles (3 km) west of downtown Urbana.

On September 22, 1985, Champaign hosted the first Farm Aid concert at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium.

In 2005, Champaign–Urbana (specifically the University of Illinois) was the location of the National Science Olympiad Tournament, attracting young scientists from all 50 states.

Downtown Champaign drains into Boneyard Creek, which feeds the Saline Branch of the Salt Fork Vermilion River.

[12] The city has a humid continental climate, typical of the Midwestern United States, with hot summers and cold, moderately snowy winters.

Herff Jones, formerly Collegiate Cap and Gown, and Kraft also form part of the city's industrial base.

The Champaign-Urbana community is a well-known hub for startups, including a top ranking from Silicon Prairie News in 2019.

The Research Park, located on campus land just south of the State Farm Center and run by the University of Illinois, is home to many companies, including Caterpillar, ADM, John Deere, AbbVie, Motorola Solutions, Brunswick, Capital One, Cargill, NVIDIA, Riverbed Technology, Abbott Laboratories, Yahoo!

In 2022, Starfire was growing so fast, it bought its own 190,000 SF building in the northwest side of Champaign.

Numerous other software and technology companies also have offices in Champaign including Ansys, Amdocs, Cloudflare, Instarecon, Phonak, Power World, and Caterpillar Simulation Center.

In the 1980s, part of the downtown Champaign area (Neil St.) was closed to vehicular traffic to create a pedestrian mall, but this short-lived experiment was scrapped when business declined.

It has an ornate, Spanish Renaissance-influenced interior, full stage and dressing rooms, and its original Wurlitzer pipe organ.

The Art Theater Co-op, which showed independent and foreign films, was built in 1913 as the Park Theatre.

[38][39] Located along Green Street, this commercial district serves as the entertainment and retail center for students at the University of Illinois and citizens of the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area.

Several new projects opened in 2008 including the 18-story Burnham 310 high-rise and grocery store at 4th and Springfield, and a new 24-story apartment building called 309 Green.

[44] The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fields ten men and eleven women varsity sports.

Built from 1922 to 1923, Memorial Stadium was named in honor of the students and faculty members who died overseas during World War I.

The stadium also was the temporary home of the NFL's Chicago Bears for the 2002 season while its regular venue Soldier Field was being renovated.

The city's Champaign County Colts were a founding member of the Central Illinois Collegiate League from 1963 to 1964.

[55] In October 2014, the Midwest Professional Basketball Association announced the creation of the Champaign Swarm as one of its founding members, that began play at the Dodds Athletic Center in January 2015.

Judah Christian School, which is located just south of I-74 on Prospect Avenue, opened in 1983 and serves grades pre-kindergarten through 12.

Located within Champaign are two institutions of higher education, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Parkland College.

The station activates the SAME tone alarm feature and a 1050 Hz tone activating older radios (except for AMBER Alerts, using the SAME feature only) for hazardous weather and non-weather warnings and emergencies, along with selected weather watches, for the Illinois counties of Champaign, Coles, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Moultrie, Piatt, and Vermillion.

Champaign is served by I-57, I-72, I-74, two railroad lines, and the University of Illinois operated Willard Airport (CMI).

Illinois Highways Route 10 In 1999, a newly designed intermodal transportation center, aptly named Illinois Terminal by historic reference to the defunct electric interurban rail line that once ran through Champaign, was completed and serves as a central facility for intercity passenger rail, bus services as well as the MTD's local bus network.

The local bus system, which is supported by the taxpayers of the Champaign–Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) and the University of Illinois, serves Champaign, Urbana, Savoy, and surrounding areas.

The former Illinois Central Railroad line—now part of the Canadian National Railway system—runs north to south through the city.

A spur line from the Canadian National line provides service to several large industries, including two large food processing plants, on the west edge of Champaign and two grain elevators in outlying communities to the west.

Greyhound Lines, Peoria Charter Coach Company, and Burlington Trailways provide intercity bus service to Champaign.