Clinton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 37,762. Its county seat is Carlyle.
Gallatin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 5,589, making it the fifth-least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Shawneetown. It is located in the southern portion of Illinois known locally as "Little Egypt".
Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 39,561. Its county seat is Benton. It is located in the southern portion of Illinois known locally as "Little Egypt".
Carlyle is a city in Clinton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,281 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Clinton County.
Equality is a village in Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. The population was 595 at the 2010 census, down from 721 at the 2000 census. Near the village are two points of interest, the Crenshaw House and the Garden of the Gods Wilderness. Equality was the county seat of Gallatin County from 1826–1851.
Old Shawneetown is a village in Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the village had a population of 193, down from 278 at the 2000 census. Located along the Ohio River, Shawneetown served as an important United States government administrative center for the Northwest Territory. The village was devastated by the Ohio River flood of 1937. The village's population was moved several miles inland to New Shawneetown.
Walnut Hill is a village in Marion County, Illinois, United States. The population was 109 at the 2000 census.
Kaskaskia is a historically important village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. In the 2010 census the population was 14, making it the second-smallest incorporated community in the State of Illinois in terms of population, behind Valley City. As a major French colonial town of the Illinois Country, in the 18th century its peak population was about 7,000, when it was a regional center. During the American Revolutionary War, the town, which by then had become an administrative center for the British Province of Quebec, was taken by the Virginia militia during the Illinois campaign. It was designated as the county seat of Illinois County, Virginia, after which it became part of the Northwest Territory in 1787. Kaskaskia was later named as the capital of the United States' Illinois Territory, created on February 3, 1809. In 1818, when Illinois became the 21st U.S. state, the town briefly served as the state's first capital until 1819, when the capital was moved to more centrally located Vandalia.
Eldorado is a city in Saline County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,122 at the 2010 census, with a 1925 peak of 8,000. Although the city's name is spelled as if it were Spanish, the name was originally "Elder-Reado"—a combination of the last names of the town's two founders, Judge Samuel Elder and Joseph Read. According to legend, a signpainter for the railroad painted the name "Eldorado" on the train depot; as a result, the spelling and pronunciation was forever changed.
Herrin is a city in Williamson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 12,501 at the 2010 census.
The American Bottom is the flood plain of the Mississippi River in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois, extending from Alton, Illinois, south to the Kaskaskia River. It is also sometimes called "American Bottoms". The area is about 175 square miles (450 km2), mostly protected from flooding in the 21st century by a levee and drainage canal system. Immediately across the river from St. Louis, Missouri are industrial and urban areas, but many swamps and the major Horseshoe Lake are reminders of the Bottoms' riparian nature. This plain served as the center for the pre-Columbian Cahokia Mounds civilization, and later the French settlement of Illinois Country. Deforestation of the river banks in the 19th century to fuel steamboats had dramatic environmental effects in this region. The Mississippi River between St. Louis and the confluence with the Ohio River became wider and more shallow, as unstable banks collapsed into the water. This resulted in more severe flooding and lateral changes of the major channel, causing the destruction of several French colonial towns, such as Kaskaskia, which relocated; Cahokia, and St. Philippe, Illinois.
Goshen Road was an early road that ran from Old Shawneetown, Illinois, on the Ohio River, northwest to the Goshen Settlement, near Glen Carbon, Illinois, near the Mississippi River. In the early 19th century, this was the main east/west road in Illinois.
The Goshen Settlement was an early American pioneer settlement in what is now Illinois, USA, located to the east of St. Louis, Missouri. The settlement was located about one mile (1.6 km) southwest of modern Glen Carbon, Illinois, at the point where Judy's Creek emerges from the bluffs into the American Bottoms, on its way to the Mississippi River.
Michael Kelly Lawler was a volunteer militia soldier in the Black Hawk War, 1831–1832, an officer in the United States Army in both the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. In the latter conflict, as a brigadier general he commanded a brigade of infantry in the Western Theater and served in several battles.
The Gallatin County Courthouse is a government building in Shawneetown, the county seat of Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. Built in 1939, it is at least the third Shawneetown building to serve as the county courthouse, but the only one following Shawneetown's complete relocation to avoid flooding on the Ohio River.
