Ghost Towns of Illinois (A-L)

County: Cass
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°58’56N 90°09’32W
Elevation: 614 ft (187 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Anderson is an unincorporated community in Cass County, Illinois, United States. Anderson is northeast of Virginia.
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Barr (Macoupin County), IL

County: Macoupin
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°24’17N 90°06’15W
Elevation: 666 ft (203 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Barr is an unincorporated community in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. Barr is 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of Palmyra.
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Benjaminville, IL

County: McLean
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40° 28′ 35.4 N, 88° 48′ 22 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1856
Disestablished: Ghost Town after 1870
Comments: The village of Benjaminville, Illinois, was founded in McLean County, Illinois, United States during the 1850s by Quaker farmers, who, like many others who came to Illinois, were looking to take advantage of the rich prairie soil. The town’s settlement centered on the Society of Friends and the meeting house that was first constructed there in 1859.
Remains: The town was rendered a ghost town after 1870 when the expected Lake Erie Railroad did not come into town. Today the unincorporated community of Bentown, Illinois, exists near the site of the former town of Benjaminville.
Current Status: The members of the Society of Friends Benjaminville meeting often took political stances on issues of the day. Among these were, peace, Indian affairs, women’s suffrage, and the evils of boxing, lotteries, and gambling. Throughout the 19th century, Benjaminville was home to a distinct local community of considerable political importance. Benjaminville never grew large though it did contain at least two churches besides the meeting house and a few shops. By 1870 the town’s fate was sealed when the Lake Erie Railroad opted to bypass the town because of the elevation of its terrain. The local churches eventually moved closer to the new railroad and the town’s businesses shut down. In 1981 the only other remaining structure, an old wagon shop, was destroyed by fire, leaving the meeting house as the last remnant of the town.
Remarks: Benjaminville was founded in 1856 when three Quaker families, Joseph Marot, Isaac Clement, and Timothy Benjamin, arrived in the area. The settlement followed and was closely tied to the Society of Friends and the local church. The town grew gradually, in 1859 the first Meeting House was erected at a cost of US$1,000 and a burial ground was established soon after. Through the 1860s a slow but steady stream of Quakers moved to the area. In 1874 the Benjaminville Friends Meeting House was erected, the only structure still extant from the town of Benjaminville. Settlement continued through the 1870s and Benjaminville became a social, political, and religious hub for Friends from Illinois. An 1879 history of McLean County called Benjaminville “one of the strongest settlements of Friends that is to be found anywhere in the state.”

Bethel, IL

County: Clay
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°42’15N 88°41’17W
Elevation: 515 ft (157 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Bethel is a former community in Clay County, Illinois, United States. Bethel was located in Songer Township, along a railroad line north of Greendale.
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Bourbonais, IL

County: Bureau
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41°20’37N 89°38’07W
Elevation: 682 ft (208 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1864
Disestablished:
Comments: Bourbonais is a former settlement in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. Bourbonais was located in Concord Township, along the Burlington railroad line southwest of Wyanet and northeast of Buda. It was platted in 1864. It was named for a man of mixed French and Native American ancestry who had settled in this general area in 1820.
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Brownsville, IL

County: Jackson
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 37° 46′ 17.06 N, 89° 23′ 2.59 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Brownsville is a ghost town in Jackson County, Illinois, United States.
Remains:
Current Status: Brownsville, located close to a salt creek that empties into the Big Muddy River, is the former county seat of Jackson County. It is 3.25 miles due west of Murphysboro and 0.75 miles south of Illinois Route 149. It was moved when the courthouse and downtown burned to the ground in 1843, and the county seat was then moved to Murphysboro.
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Brush Point, IL

County: DeKalb
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 42° 1′ 41 N, 88° 45′ 13 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Brush Point was a community that existed in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States, which is now extinct.
Remains:
Current Status: In June 1839 it was under consideration as one of three towns, for the county seat. It gained the support of Brush Point doctor Henry Madden. Ultimately, Brush Point lost out to Sycamore and disappeared from existence. Brush Point is located in Mayfield Township, northwest of Sycamore and north of DeKalb.
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Bybee, IL

County: Fulton
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°35’52N 90°11’5W
Elevation: 682 ft (208 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Bybee is a former settlement in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. The settlement was about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) south-southwest of Fairview and 8.3 miles (13.4 km) west-northwest of Canton.
Remains: The community was laid out by David Bybee on a narrow-gauge railway: probably the Fulton County Narrow Gauge Railroad that operated from 1880 to the 1920s. That railway was converted into standard gauge c. 1910. In 1905, two trains per day passed through Bybee; by 1913, only one train a day. There was a school, store, and train stop on the narrow gauge rail. There is a small cemetery near where this community formerly existed. The track was removed from this area when the narrow gauge company discontinued service between Galesburg and Fairview.
Current Status: The name Bybee is in four nearby geographic features in the Geographic Names Information System: the settlement (422523), a station (1802152) 1,550 feet (0.294 mi; 0.47 km) to the east, and two entries (405312 and 1984238) that appear to be the same cemetery 2,500 feet (0.47 mi; 0.76 km) west of the settlement, all along Cypress Road just south of Turkey Creek. There is also another cemetery (1773316) with the name Bybee, 13.8 miles (22.2 km) east-southeast of the settlement in Banner Township.
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Caledonia (Putnum County), IL

County:
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude:
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
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Cardiff, IL

County: Livingston
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41° 3′ 6 N, 88° 17′ 14 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1899
Disestablished:
Comments: Cardiff is a ghost town in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. Founded as a coal mining town in 1899, it boomed in its first few years.
Remains: Rapid growth ceased after accidents in the mines in 1903, and the closure of the mines in 1912 soon led to the community’s demise.
Current Status: It is located in Round Grove Township, between the villages of Campus and Reddick.
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Challacombe, IL

Civer, IL

County: Fulton
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°31’27N 090°06’27W
Elevation: 679 ft (207 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Civer is a ghost town in Fulton County, Illinois, United States. Its elevation was 679 feet (207 m).
Remains:
Current Status: The community no longer exists.
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Clayville, IL

County:
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude:
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1824
Disestablished: 1850s
Comments: Clayville is a former roadside hamlet, inhabited from 1824 into the 1850s, located in Cartwright Township near Pleasant Plains, Illinois, United States.
Remains: The settlement was never large but was firmly centered on a once-thriving tavern on the main road between Springfield, the state capital, and the Illinois River port of Beardstown. The Broadwell Tavern continues to stand on its original foundation today as a reminder of the once-active frontier settlement.
Current Status: Residents of Sangamon County took steps, starting in the late 1900s, to preserve Broadwell Tavern and reconstruct adjacent wooden structures as a combined work of historic preservation and a local open-air museum. After an effort to operate the tavern and museum under the auspices of Sangamon State University (a predecessor of the University of Illinois at Springfield) failed in 1992, the tavern was once again abandoned and allowed to deteriorate. Preservation efforts, led by Pleasant Plains neighbors, resumed in 2009. “Clayville Historic Site”, a purpose-organized nonprofit closely affiliated with the Pleasant Plains Historical Society, acquired the abandoned tavern and adjacent land parcels in 2010. Clayville Historic Site, as of 2015, operates an annual spring festival, summer folk music meets, fall festival, several car cruise-ins, and haunted house festival at the ghost townsite, and has refitted the tavern to restore the exterior and partly restore the interior to its operational appearance in the 1840s.
Remarks: The Broadwell Tavern was built in 1824 by innkeeper and land developer John Broadwell as an investment in the Springfield area. The businessman sensed that the nearby county seat of Springfield would grow and its residents would need to travel in and out. On the American frontier in the 1830s, a tavern typically doubled as a logistics center. The drivers of slow-moving, horse-drawn drays needed a place to spend the night where their horses could be fed and watered. Illinois law required taverns to provide these services as a condition of receiving a license to serve alcohol by the drink. Although the hospitality of the Broadwell Tavern was never luxurious, the tavern’s fireplaces kept the brick tavern warm, and glass windows helped encourage the guests to get up early and resume their journeys. The tavern was built in a vernacular Federal style. Clayville Tavern was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May 1973.

Clifford Eight, IL

Coltonville, IL

County: DeKalb
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41° 58′ 17 N, 88° 44′ 10 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Coltonville was a community in DeKalb County, Illinois, United States
Remains: In June 1839, DeKalb County was considering building a courthouse and, as such, placement of a county seat. Rufus Colton, Clerk of the Court in the county, was leading a push for Coltonville, where he lived. Through political wrangling and underhanded techniques, Colton nearly led Coltonville into a new era as a county seat. He had arranged for the court to convene at his home, only after he had set up an election, as a clerk, for the county seat. The election was unique, in that, only the residents of Colton’s choice for the county seat, Coltonville, were informed of it. When the DeKalb County Court convened, in Colton’s Coltonville home, the sheriff served a court order which stated a courthouse was to be built in Sycamore, the city which would become the county seat. Even without the court order, Colton’s actions would have never been deemed legal; they were eventually canceled by an act of the Illinois General Assembly. Along with Brush Point, the other community considered for the county seat, both communities disappeared after losing out to Sycamore.
Current Status: Today, the town name lives on as Coltonville Road in southwestern Sycamore. The townsite lies in DeKalb Township, near the cities of DeKalb and Sycamore.
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Comer, IL

Crawfordsville, IL

County: Crawford
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°52’00N 87°40’10W
Elevation: 449 ft (137 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Crawfordsville is a ghost town in Crawford County, Illinois, United States. Crawfordsville was 2.5 miles (4.0 km) south of Flat Rock, and about the same distance north of Birds.
Remains:
Current Status: The townsite lies on both sides of the dividing line between Honey Creek Township and Montgomery Township.
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Daggett, IL

County: Carroll
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 42°01’57N 89°58’25W
Elevation: 751 ft (229 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Daggett is a former settlement in Carroll County, Illinois, United States. Daggett was located in Salem Township, south of Mount Carroll along Illinois Route 78.
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Elm Point, IL

County: Bond
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°00’21N 89°28’25W
Elevation: 607 ft (185 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Elm Point is a former settlement in Bond County, Illinois, United States. Elm Point was south of Donnellson.
Remains: Elm Point appeared on maps as late as 1876. The townsite lies on Illinois State Route 127, the dividing line between Lagrange Township (east) and Shoal Creek Township (west).
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Enos, IL

Evans, IL

County: Logan
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°13’18N 89°21’50W
Elevation: 591 ft (180 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Evans is an unincorporated community in Logan County, Illinois, United States. Evans is located 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Lincoln.
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Fillmore (Douglas County), IL

County: Douglas
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°42’48N 88°22’52W
Elevation: 650 ft (200 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Fillmore is a ghost town in Douglas County, Illinois, United States. Fillmore was located 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Chesterville.
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Fremont, IL

County: Clinton
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°43’39N 89°31’12W
Elevation: 509 ft (155 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Fremont is a ghost town in Clinton County, Illinois, United States. Fremont was located in St. Rose Township, 8 miles (13 km) north of Breese.
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Greenridge, IL

Green Rock, IL

County: Henry
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41°28’23N 90°21’27W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Green Rock is a neighborhood of the city of Colona in Henry County, Illinois, United States. Once a separate community, Green Rock was named so because it is the place where the Green River meets up with the Rock River.
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Griffin, IL

County: Clark
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°26’48N 87°39’17W
Elevation: 581 ft (177 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Griffin is a former settlement in Clark County, Illinois, United States. Griffin was located in Wabash Township, along a railroad line between Marshall and Dennison.
Remains:
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Griggsville Landing, IL

County: Pike
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39° 41′ 49 N, 90° 38′ 51 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Griggsville Landing, also known as Phillips Landing or Phillips Ferry, was located in Flint Township, just south of Valley City, Illinois.
Remains: It is a former townsite on the Illinois River in Pike County. The town was a steamboat stop that began sometime in the 1830s. There was a lime kiln there that was part of a commercial lime operation prior to post-Civil War industrial intensification in the lime industry.
Current Status: The town at Griggsville Landing was home to a boatyard, a grist mill, and a hotel in addition to the Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln, built around 1850, which is still standing as of 2007. The town was eventually abandoned, rendering it a ghost town.
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Gurney, IL

County: Cass
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°53’57N 90°03’00W
Elevation: 630 ft (190 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
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Hagaman, IL

County: Macoupin
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°18’37N 90°04’41W
Elevation: 518 ft (158 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Gurney is a ghost town in Cass County, Illinois, United States. Gurney was located in Ashland Township, on Illinois Route 125 between Philadelphia and Ashland.
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Horace, IL

County:
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude:
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Hagaman is an unincorporated community in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. Hagaman is 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Hettick.
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Jugtown, IL

Kankakee City, IL

County: Kankakee
Zip Code: 60901
Latitude / Longitude: 41°7’12N 87°51’40W
Elevation: 656 ft (200 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established: 1854
Disestablished:
Comments: Kankakee /kæk’ki/ is a city in and the county seat of Kankakee County, Illinois, United States. The city’s name is probably derived from the Miami-Illinois word teeyaahkiki, meaning: “Open country/exposed land/land in open/land exposed to view,” in reference to the area’s prior status as a marsh.
Remains: The area of Kankakee was inhabited by the Potawatami beginning sometime in the 18th century. In 1833 the Potawatami signed a treaty with the United States government, agreeing to leave the region and move west. Kankakee was founded in 1854.
Current Status: As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,537. Kankakee is a principal city of the Kankakee-Bourbonnais-Bradley Metropolitan Statistical Area.
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Kumler, IL

County: McLean
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°17’59N 88°34’41W
Elevation: 735 ft (224.0 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Kumler is a ghost town in West Township, McLean County, Illinois, United States.
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Ledford, IL

County: Saline
Zip Code: 62946
Latitude / Longitude: 37°42’00N 88°35’24W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Ledford is an unincorporated community in the Harrisburg Township, Saline County, Illinois, the United States situated between Carrier Mills and Harrisburg, Illinois. It was named after a well-known Ledford family in the area. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the peak of the coal boom in Saline County, it was a thriving mining center home to more than 1000 people.
Remains: It lies three miles South of Harrisburg on US 45. At one time, it had a population of 1,100 to 1,400 people. According to an early edition of the Harrisburg Daily Register, there was a time during the first 10 years of the 20th century that the population of Ledford was larger than that of Harrisburg, the county seat. In 1905, Saline County had numerous small slope mines and 15 major shaft mines. Thirteen of these larger mines were along the Big Four Railroad that traveled through Ledford.
Current Status: Today, Ledford is considered part of Harrisburg, Illinois. Almost all signs of the mining industry are gone. The mines’ air shafts and fans are gone as well as the many coal tipples and mine ponds that dotted the area. The smokestacks are missing and the air is clean. Gone are the sounds of the tipples hoisting coal, the steam whistles signaling the men, and the occasional snorts of a steam locomotive or the groaning of a streetcar motor. Ledford is a quiet community with a population of only 100 people.
Remarks:

Lemmon, IL

Lexington (Edwards County), IL

County: Edwards
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°24’57N 87°57’51W
Elevation: 390 ft (120 m)
Time Zone: Central (CST) (UTC-6)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Lexington is a former settlement in Edwards County, Illinois, United States. Lexington was 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of Bone Gap.
Remains:
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Anderson (Macoupin County), IL