Southern Illinois History - Geography

The Land Between the Rivers - Massac, Pulaski, Johnson, Pope, Alexander and Union counties - saw several nationally significant events of which many local residents are not familiar.  We hope this website will spur your interest in geography and history of this area.
 
Southernmost Illinois (south of Route 13) is gentle hills and scenic bluffs. Carbondale-Marion-Harrisburg is where the southernmost glaciers stopped (causing boring flatland to the north). And a finger of the Gulf of Mexico touched Alexander and Pulaski Counties. The artwork above illustrates the land near Shawnee College, Karnak and Ullin, where the Ohio River once ran, and earthquakes about 900 AD may have caused the land to sink then re-fill with sediment.
Picture

 
The crescent shape of the Ohio River between Metropolis and Cairo was one of the busiest "interstate highways" as settlers on flatboats headed west. Mound City and Cairo were staging areas, hospitals and a cemetery for the Civil War. In 1800, half the US military was housed at Grand Chain, with its commander considering whether to start his own country in the southwest. Earlier, the King of France had sanctioned a huge buffalo hide tanning operation at the same place. 

Since the beginning of time, this area has seen dinosaurs and tropical conditions, as well as the glaciers. Global warming? The Illinois State Museum says glaciers have come and gone across much of the state, several times. 

Cairo is at the confluence of the Ohio (below, right) and Mississippi rivers.  The confluence of 200 years ago was at the southern tip of the business district, the north side of the cultivated fields, more than a mile north of where it is now.

Pieces of Southern Illinois History


Way Back - Tropical rain forest climate, a mile-high glacier, continents trying to pull apart, dinosaurs, earthquakes, rerouting of large rivers. Yes, here. 

Mississippian   900-1550 AD. People built mounds to look up to their religious and civic leaders. A tool manufacturing and export business was thriving, 1,000 years before Mill Creek had a post office. 

Explorers  1550-1800
   Marquette and Joliet find a landmark river rock    
   A huge buffalo hide tanning operation here with French king's blessing
   French, Spanish, British, Virginian, American land. Tight quarters, too close for comfort
   Washington at Valley Forge, while Clark seized forts here, on the western edge of the country
   Lewis and Clark unpack their survey tools, at Cairo

 


1800s 
A tragic march of native Americans
A big military post here housed half the US Military. Its leader considered starting a new country. 
A new US capital... where?
An underground railroad to free slaves 
A short, fiery orator and a tall, pensive man debate about a nation divided.
Cairo and Mound City are Civil War staging areas.  Mound City shipyards builds, fits, repairs many Union war boats.
The first US Navy nurses, at Mound City, help a hospital and hospital ship. A National cemetery buries blue and grey, black and white soldiers.
General Grant leads troops training at Cairo.
An early church still stands in a valley of grain.

20th century and forward
Buying grain in Egypt
Superheroes
The big flood of '37
Coal and cat litter for the nation
The big flood of '93
A million visitors a year to Fort Massac

Researchers of Southernmost Illinois History can find help at Southern Illinois University's Morris Library Special Collections and the Cairo Public Library.