Tag Archives: Illinois

Since the Covid shut down all my vacations in 2020 I have been heading out on short trips to see parks, small towns, geological formations, and wildlife. On Halloween, I visited some of the most rural areas in the Midwest – central western Illinois. You can’t find any coffee shops, there aren’t any museums, there are barely any people. The land is glaciated and generally flat. There is lots of corn. And of course, colorful trees.

After the Mexican war and Blackhawk war soldiers were given land in Illinois. One gentleman, George Meyer, was given a beautiful piece of property in western Illinois near the Illinois River. This land had a spring and a small town grew up around it. The man lived to be 104 years old, so everyone believed the water was healing. After George passed on, a real estate man got his hands on it and sold the water for decades. Later this area became Siloam Springs State Park. This history is hidden among the picnic pavilions and hiking trails.

We left Siloam Springs for the biggest town in the region – Jacksonville: the county seat of Morgan county. When we arrived, it too was a ghost town.

Or…

I don’t know if the coffee shop was really closed today or everyday. I don’t know how it could survive with no people. I walked into the bakery to see if I could find a doughnut. The door was open but nobody was inside. I could see cakes and cupcakes – but no doughnuts. And no people.

We wandered to another remote state park – Beaver Dam State Park. We heard there was people there.

So we headed home.