Skip to main content

Old Shawneetown, Illinois

Image
By
A river town always has its risks. A series of floods, or one bad flood, can devastate an entire community.

Main Street - Old Shawneetown. Hogdaddy's Saloon - an attraction for local motorcyclists that is now closed.

Old Shawneetown, Illinois is located on the north shore of the Ohio River in Southern Illinois and is the oldest town in the state.  Shawneetown dates to the original Northwest Territory; it was surveyed, platted, and chartered by the United States Government. The settlement served as a key government administrative outpost for the Northwest Territory.

Shawneetown's location on the Ohio River made it an important commerce center in the early 19th century. Shawneetown was where Illinois's first bank chartered in 1816.  The river helped Shawneetown grow to over 1800 residents by the early 20th century. But that same river would unfortunately lead to its demise.

Damage to Shawneetown after the Great Flood of 1937. Of the 400 buildings that were in the town limits, only 20 were still habitable after the floodwaters receded. (Russell Lee - Library of Congress)

Three major floods between 1884 and 1913 impacted the town. But it was the Great Flood of 1937 that would ultimately change Shawneetown.  The floodwaters submerged nearly the entire community under 15 feet of water - residents who escaped the flooding would find their homes and businesses destroyed.

Shawneetown flood refugees lived in a nearby tent city. Many of these residents would relocate to the new Shawneetown - located four miles west - in the upcoming years. (Russell Lee - Library of Congress)

The damage initiated a relocation of most of the town. Four miles inland and west on Highway 13, a new Shawneetown was created.  With state and federal government funding, the new town was laid out. The Gallatin County Courthouse moved to the new Shawneetown, along with most of the community's residents and businesses.  By 1950, over three-quarters of Shawneetown had moved west.  The old town became 'Old Shawneetown.'

An old Texaco filling station in Old Shawneetown.

Since 1950, Old Shawneetown's population has continued to decline - only 113 residents as of the 2020 Census.  Slowly but surely, most of the town's homes were abandoned and eventually destroyed.  The town's once-bustling Main Street sits empty, with a few buildings remaining.  In 1955, the Shawneetown Bridge carrying Illinois Route 13 into Kentucky eliminated the former Ohio River ferry that had a landing in Old Shawneetown.  The absence of regular traffic served as another blow to the town.

The 1841 Bank of Illinois building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is an Illinois State Historic Site. It is an impressive landmark,

The former Bank of Illinois building is one of the few original Old Shawneetown structures standing. Finished in 1841, the magnificent five-column Greek Revival brick and limestone landmark is now a state historic site. The bank building housed several different banks until ending functional operation after the Great Flood.

Main Street - Old Shawneetown.  There once were numerous storefronts in the empty space between the two buildings.

Visiting Old Shawneetown today is quiet but not eerie.  As you stand on an empty main street, it is easy to imagine a bustling river community - the wide avenue filled with shops, cars, and pedestrians going about their day.  What remains of Old Shawneetown is a glimpse into the past - and our imagination fills in the rest.

All photos taken by post author - February 19, 2024 - unless otherwise noted.

Sources & Links:
How To Get There:

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Mines Road

By
Mines Road is an approximately twenty-eight-mile highway located in the rural parts of the Diablo Range east of the San Francisco Bay Area.  Mines Road begins in San Antonio Valley in Santa Clara County and terminates at Tesla Road near Livermore of Alameda County.  The highway essentially is a modern overlay of the 1840s Mexican haul trail up Arroyo Mocho known as La Vereda del Monte.  The modern corridor of Mines Road took shape in the early twentieth century following development of San Antonio Valley amid a magnesite mining boom.  Part 1; the history of Mines Road Modern Mines Road partially overlays the historic corridor used by La Vereda del Monte (Mountain Trail).  La Vereda del Monte was part of a remote overland route through the Diablo Range primarily used to drive cattle from Alta California to Sonora.  The trail was most heavily used during the latter days of Alta California during the 1840s. La Vereda del Monte originated at Point of Timber between modern day Byron and Bre
Post a Comment
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more