of Alexander, Pulaski, Union, Johnson, Massac and nearby counties Buying grain, like Joseph In the early 1800's, Southern Illinois became known as "Egypt" or "Little Egypt." { alt ) Perhaps it happened when upstate settlers came south to buy grain during years of poor harvests, just as ancient people had traveled to Egypt to buy grain (Genesis 41:57 and 42:1-3). Towns in Southern Illinois were named Cairo, Thebes, Boaz, Herod and Karnak, just as in the country of Egypt. Dongola is along the Nile in upper Sudan. Carmi was one of 12 son of Jacob, who trekked to Biblical Egypt to buy grain. Farmers still sell grain around Cairo. See more Southern Illinois History and Cairo history. Civil rights struggles affected the region. The Ohio River The Ohio River flood of 1937 displaced many. Cairo residents went to surrounding communities miles away, and some stayed with unknown people who had opened their homes to the victims, until floodwaters went down. A radio engineer in Harrisburg was a dedicated flood superhero. Speaking of superheroes, Metropolis, the official home of Superman, claimed its honor a few decades ago, with a large statue on the court square, and museums. The local paper changed its name appropriately to the "Metropolis Planet". Stars of "Superman" episodes have come to the celebration each summer. Superman, a floating casino and Ft. Massac all boost the Metropolis economy. Ft. Massac claims "easily over a million" visitors per year. There are several Metropolis attractions. Metropolis and Joppa have several industries including the LaFarge cement plant, a natural gas pumping station, a uranium enrichment plant, a large power plant and a large towboat operation. The Cook Coal Terminal near Metropolis can blend carloads of western low-sulfur coal with local higher-sulfur coal to provide power companies with the best mix to meet clean air requirements. It ships the coal by barge to Eastern US users via the Ohio, Cumberland, Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. Lock and Dam #53, built in the 1930's to regulate the depth of the Ohio River is being replaced by the Olmsted Lock and Dam Project. Read the Olmstead Lock and Dam-Corps of Engineers' description, illustrration . The Smithland Lock and Dam is recent, and upstream from Metropolis. Nearly twenty-five companies do business on the Ohio between Cairo (mile 980) and the Paducah area (mile 929). They handle large amounts of grain. King Neptune pig war bond auction brought in 19-million dollars. A marker is east of Anna. Drive the Ohio River National Scenic Byway. The film U.S. Marshals plane crash in water and old store building scenes were shot along the Ohio in southern Pope County at Bay City, in 1997. A local bridge, hospital and truck stop were also in the film. The 1950s classic film "How the West was Won" contains several scenes filmed along the Ohio between Cave-In-Rock and Paducah. The opening scene, supposedly the beginning of the Ohio River, was filmed at Smithland, KY, just upriver from Brookport. The I-24 bridge at Metropolis had structural problems, corrected in 1989. Naturalist John James Audubon stopped in Pulaski County in 1810 because of river ice, while moving his dry goods business from Western Kentucky to Southeast Missouri ( short bio ). He later returned to sketch wildlife. Ducks and geese migrating the Mississippi Valley are a year-round sight at the Union County State Fish & Wildlife Area. Much Paleocene-age Porters Creek absorbent clay is mined near Olmstead for the nation's pet litter boxes and oil spill containment. Many Illinois minerals are in the state's southernmost part. The Bald Knob Cross Easter sunrise services draw a crowd, and the large white cross draws cameras year-round. The story of a rural mail carrier who claimed to have sharpened his mind by running a stick along a picket fence and counting the clicks, and a widow woman who made a difference, have their place in Southernmost Illinois History. Cairo bridges across Mississippi, Ohio, other IL and MO bridges. Vienna has a museum in the home of former and long-time Secretary of State Paul Powell. After Powell's unexpected death, large sums of cash and uncashed checks made out to him from citizens across Illinois, were found in his Springfield hotel suite. Here are several Southern Illinois museums, Vienna's, included. The Ohio River has seen much mussel harvesting in years past. The Marion Federal Prison was built in the 1960s to replace Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The "Supermax" Illinois State Prison at Tamms houses some of the toughest prisoners in the state, and handles all court-ordered state executions. The Mississippi River seems to have had more than its share of 500-year floods. 1993 was an example. A news account tells of the 1993 flooding problems in the "dogtooth bend" area of Alexander County, near Olive Branch. A recreational attraction, Horseshoe Lake, is nearby. Cairo and Mounds area recipies are part of this page. "Ways to clean and cook Mississippi River fish" is an interesting sidelight of a Chicago columnist's travel through Southernmost Illinois. Plans for a new east-west Interstate highway through the area are underway. I-66 would link Washington, D.C., Paducah, KY, Springfield, MO, and the Southwest. Some propose to run it directly through the Southernmost Illinois counties. Ohio River Valley History
|
