argh! still not able to get my variables

First off, thank you to all the people who have helped me so far with passing variables in a URL. I THINK it worked, but it would appear not to have. this is the line in the page with the link: <a href='detail.php?county_id=$county_id'>$name</a> So what this should do is make the line item be a hyperlink to a detail page for the county. When i click the link, the address shows up as: http://cis1.elgin.edu/cis21020/detail.php?county_id=17089 so it appears to be passing the information. The thing is, i cant refrence that variable...maybe in doing it wrong, but i dont know. Ive tried echoing $county_id and nothing shows up. Someone else suggested that i put var_dump($_GET); into the page to see if it shows up in the variable list. When i insert this line, the page only says NULL. What in the world am I doing wrong?