Why You Should Visit Metropolis, Illinois

With Superman slated to return this year, there was every reason to go visit his hometown in Metropolis, Illinois. The small Southern Illinois community just 20 miles from Paducah, Kentucky, adopted Superman years ago since he worked in "Metropolis".

The local newspaper is The Daily Planet and a 20-foot fiberglass Superman statue oversees the downtown. There are Superman souveniers everywhere, including green "kryptonite" available at the museum and the Metropolis Chamber of Commerce.

This is a fun atmosphere for families to visit, complete with an inexpensive (less than $5) admission to the Superman Museum downtown. The museum isn't picky about which Superman it honors, with television props from the oldest Superman shows through the first set of movies, "Lois and Clark" and "Smallville."

The museum was created after Metropolis courted a well-known Superman enthusiast and convinced him to bring his personal collection to the public. There are typewriters and desks from Perry White's desk in the original Superman television show, Lois' bridal outfit from Lois & Clark, and one of Superman's costumes from the original movies.

This community takes Superman seriously. They had memorial wreaths and a funeral service when DC Comics published "The Death of Superman" issues and held candlelight vigils for Dana and Christopher Reeves. Every spring, they host a Superman festival complete with actors who have portrayed Superman, one of his foes, or one of his friends in past years, a Superman look-alike contest and more.

A mural on the side of one of the buildings is a copy of the cover of Action Comics #1, by DC Comics. It is the first comic Superman appeared in.

In addition, this is a small, friendly southern community with locals ready to talk to you about the town's two favorite drawing points, Superman and the Harrah's Metropolis Riverboat Casino.

Once you've spent the day with the children, enjoying all the Superman you can stand, the Casino has a brand new hotel just off the Ohio River and provides big name entertainment there on a regular basis. So, it's time to leave the kids with a babysitter and head over to the casino. Harrah's Metropolis has three floors of slot machines and table games, including a World Series of Poker room for those attracted to the national Texas Hold 'Em craze.

Another favorite section of mine is the smoke-free section of the casino. A portion of one floor of the riverboat is devoted to smokeless gambling, a nice addition that the casino put in sometime last year. There are penny slots and nickel slots and much higher payouts for the high rollers, blackjack, mini-bacarat, roulette, craps and, of course, poker.

The casino also features regular promotions giving away several cars, trips and cash to visitors simply for swiping their Harrah's Rewards Card through the card readers before they enter the casino. There is a '50s-style diner and a very nice buffet restaurant in the casino and a high end restaurant at the hotel.

If gambling isn't your thing, Metropolis is also less than 30 miles away from three of Illinois' newest wineries, Hogg's Hollow, Cache River and the Shawnee Winery. All are easy to located and offer wine-tasting most afternoons in the fall. Pay special attention to the Copperhead Red at Cache River Winery and Tiffany's Gold, a sweet white wine, and Dreamcatcher, a blush, at Shawnee Winery in Vienna. All three are made exclusively with grapes grown in the region by Illinois farmers and made on site.

Metropolis is just across the Ohio River from Paducah, Kentucky , and about two hours by car southeast from St. Louis, Missouri.