The Smallest Towns In Illinois 

If you enjoyed this video, you might also be interested in the smallest towns in Texas, since so many Illinoisans are moving to the Lone Star State: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xnMAmeuto9E.html

Other tiny towns in (southern) Illinois worth mentioning include Burnt Prairie, Crisp, Hord, Heartville, Samsville and Texico.

Don't forget my grandparents little Southern Illinois town Mulkeytown less than 150 but a fun place to come in the summer when I was a kid.

My Dad was born in Belknap, IL. My Mom in Karnak, IL. Two tiny little towns. Lots of surrounding ones as well, in Southern, Il. I still love visiting there. Ever heard of these places?

It should be noted that Kaskaskia is located on the west side of the Mississippi River requiring a drive through Missouri to get there and is home to The Liberty Bell of The West.

I don't think it is a town anymore and I think the USPS closed the post office, but at one time Muddy was one of the smallest towns and claimed to have the smallest post office. The post office was quite literally one room and you could only fit one person in the "lobby" at one time. I believe that when the post office closed, the official population was 10.

I grew up in Wayne Co. lots of small towns around. The next county over, Edwards Co., had a place called Bone Gap pop. 19 back in early 80s

I grew up and still live in Nason IL, we are surrounded by the Rend lake wildlife refuge on 3 sides, there are under 200 people, our kid's attend Waltonville schools (7 miles west of Nason) and we use the Bonnie IL post office, we have 1 bar and 2 churches, it was once one of the biggest city's in Jefferson county, there was a train (The Tinkerville Trolley) that ran twice a day from Nason to Mt Vernon when the coal mine was still in operation, Nason once had one of the most modern coal mines in the world (opened around 1921 i think), about one out of every two house's "mysteriously" caught fire and burned to the ground in the week following the closing of the Nason mine (im sure insurance had nothing to do with that 🙄) , most people work in Mt Vernon IL these days, about 50% of what use to be the City of Nason is under Rend lake, Life is boring here but its a good place to raise kids and grow old, on a side note most female companionship has to be imported (i imported my wife from Eldorado il) as its mostly hairy legs in this town aka a total sausage fest 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Although not incorporated, Tabor is a town near my hometown of Waynesville and only comprised of 2 houses and a grain elevator.

Valley City used to have 2 taverns and Tate Cheese. The taverns are gone and Tate Cheese closed years ago. Winn Productions and the rock quarry and a few homes are all that is left.

These are kind of ghost towns that haven't completely disappeared. I am aware of two of them: Bentley and Time. When schools consolodated the towns without schools tend to disappear

Back in the 90's there was a small village called Iron in White Co. It had a post office and 5 residents. Gone now but cool vid.

Great nature shots and landscape didn’t know what Illinois look like

I was incorrect, the Muddy, Illinois post office is still open and the stated population for the village of Muddy is 44. Btw the hours for the post office are 12:15pm to 2:15pm

In 1963 we left little Okawville Illinois population 300. Happiest year of my entire 65 year old life. There's an underground river there that just made me ecstatic. It's 40 miles east of St. Louis on the Interstate. Let me know if you live there.

The Mississippi River actually changed course during the New Madrid earthquake and cut off Kaskaskia from the rest of Illinois.

A lot of Southern Illinois. Forgot to mention that Kaskaskia used to be the capital of Illinois. It's a neat place steeped with history if you ever get the hankering to visit there. You can't get there from Illinois though, you have to enter on the Missouri side.

2 things: Bentley: I did not know Illinois had hedgehogs, was that filmed there? Annapolis: My great grandparents lived/raised family here. Thanks for your work to make this video available.

Gulfport once was a swinging town. Iowa had really weird liquor laws, and being a river town Gulfport had several it was either in the 20's / 30's bars and restaurants and in 2000 they eith 5 / 600 people that lived there but the flood completely wiped out the town. Most of the people in Gulfport that did not have a bar or restaurant worked in Burlington Iowa. A Huge military ammunition plant. The levee was underwater nd the huge grain elevators were underwater because of the flood .

Those are tiny little towns. Love the video, I would love to live in one of those little towns, peace and quiet

What about Moonshine Il in Clark county? Population two. You can get some of the best burgers you've ever had there too. It is located just northwest of Annapolis and across the county line. I grew up only a mile outside of Annapolis, and live about seven miles from there now.

Well Time has a gazebo but Bentley has that cute hedgehog so it's the clear winner.

Dear God. When you said small, you really meant "small". Anyway, two of your communities (Rockwood and Kaskaskia) are located in Randolph County - my home county since 1950. My paternal ancestors arrived in Randolph County several years before the beginning of the American Civil War. I attended Pleasant Ridge Church in Rockwood for 2 or 3 years - a white, wooden framed church literally sitting between two kernfields. Randolph County is a great place to live and raise a family!

I lived my childhood in the town of Annapolis....#10 on your list. It had 2 banks, one was robbed at one time...and a school and 2 grocery stores. The railroad bypassed Annapolis for Robinson and oil was discovered nearby in Hardinville and today, Annapolis is a one stop sign town, with a post office, and a fertilizer company called Bunker Hill Supply. I knew some wonderful people from Annapolis and almost all were good people. Now......the town is pretty much decaying with many buildings/houses that need to be torn down. There was a feed store and a grocery there in the 1970's and an elementary school there until around 1970.

Fellow Illinoisian here, nice vid😎. I am road tripping through little Egypt this coming weekend and I will surely be seeing a bunch of the towns on this list, notably Centralia, Anna, Marion, but also Cairo, etc. Centralia is a nice location for photography but I wouldn't want to live there.

1:40 that's basically a few houses just outside of Waterloo, a city in Monroe County, but technically in our Illinois county of St Clair, making it by definition a St Louis suburb. That's the crazy thing with St Clair County, IL, the largest cities are on the western edge, which is the border of St Louis. Because our county has all the Illinois parts of MetroLink (St Louis subway), we're true suburbs of St Louis, but really just the largest western cities (Belleville, O'Fallon, Swansea, Fairview Heights, etc), as the rest of the county really shrinks in size, especially the farther away you get from St Louis.

great job you nailed it I've lived in Harrisburg I'll and I found that very interesting

Thank you for the video. My wife grew up in the country near Bentley.

Have you looked at St Francisville IL? Population now less than 600. It is located across the Wabash River from Vincennes IN.

Hi, another comment. Rockwood, Illinois, did you show prairie dogs from this town? I didn't know they were that far east. I live in Greeley, Colorado & they're all around here. :)

Gulfport is an after hours bar town. I believe there is a bar for every 5 residents. This is across the Mississippi river from Burlington Iowa which is considerably larger.

Thanks for the maps showing location. Another good one Kern!

:45 mark. LOL! My thoughts exactly.

I just moved from CA LA grew up In LA went to hllwd high. Now grown up found me 10 acres in chilicothe hills. Luv it! I don't miss traffic, people or the fake glamorous life of LA cali.

I grew up northern LaSalle county. There was a small town of 5 or 6 people in a town called Peterstown. The people consisted of a catholic priest, 2 nuns and an old couple if I remember correctly. Haven't been there in quite a few years. Maybe its been turned in corn fields and thats why it was not on your list.

Annapolis, my ancestors lived there. I never been there. I grew up in Decatur but live in Colorado now. Nice video & interesting. :)

I love these Illinois names--some of 'em. I grew up in Champaign, but it's time to move to Time.

Latham is under 300 I believe. It’s between Decatur and Lincoln.

I drove through Time once. Most, if not all the residents were trailer houses.

You should check out 2 towns in Northern Illinois. Loran, and Kent. Both in Stephenson County. They about 8 miles apart. Loran has a bar with 2 dairy farms right Cross the street/road and a church. Both towns are very small. Plus there is a smaller town in Jo Daviess County, Nora. Only has a bar and a church.

I was also thinking a bit about Johnsburg. Which was located in Northern Illinois. It does have some remote feel. Johnsburg was once like a small community until we got more businesses. While McHenry has the urban feel.

I grew up in McLean County in central IL and remember seeing a sign for Padua, pop. 5. Maybe it has totally disappeared.

I'm originally from Hillsboro. Have U ever did a video on this town ?

Howdy from Elgin. Pop 110 th. A studio apt is 780$ or so. M Wenona. Isn't that by st Charles ? Elgin/ Waukegan. Illinois.

In Knox County where I'm from originally there are several small (sadly dying out) towns i.e. Maquon where my maternal family lived in and Gilson where I went to elementary school. Sad to see them bypassed.

Those are pretty small towns and I assume they're all incorporated to be considered a town. I grew up in a small Kankakee county town that had about 600 in it when we moved there in '61. Other towns within 20 miles ranged from about 200-700 people.

I grew up in a small town in IL called in kinmundy. I think it had 800 or so, people. I thought that was small. Lol

Some small towns: Eldred, Hettick, Hillview, Curran, Petersburg, Scottville

I love your videos, but I haven't seen any of your new videos yet. I know of a couple small towns like Cedar Point, IL.,I believe the population is about 300 and there's a town called Detroit, IL.,last time I was there the population was about 150

Dunkel, Illinois. Located in central illinois it has 3 houses lol.

Malvern Illinois, 10 houses. Used to be the place back in 1800s. I've been in what used to be stage coach hotel.

Doddsville is on the boarder of Schuyler and McDonough countries. 1 church, and about 10 houses.

There's a bunch of places just like that right here in Stephenson County, Illinois.

Good video. Poverty, ownership, and incomes are grey at best in rural areas. On paper people will be poor, but all their stuff is in trusts related to family agriculture. Or they'll appear well off based on your vehicle ownership point, when it's old farm trucks. With population, it'll vary wildly based on how many square miles are considered within the town. Kaskaskia for example has more going on than population leads one to think, since it's based on an area the size of a postage stamp. Compare it to Piasa in Macoupin county which appears smaller to drive through, but claims a population of several hundred because they roll in several square miles.

I get a real kick out of your videos. I left Illinois way back in 1980. I drove to the West Coast and never looked back. I remember driving out of my missable hometown that just got an ice storm. I almost didn't make out of Illinois that day. I really wasn't sure if I was going to go to Florida or California. I remember thinking that Florida had a lot of retired people. So I turned right and drove to the Golden State. I was 26 at the time.

Kaskaskia is a fascinating town with an interesting history. Been there a couple times

Yesterday me and my friend randomly drove to Ohio IL out of the blue. Population is under 460ish. Very quiet area with decent schooling and 1880s architecture that is slowly getting renovated. EXTREMELY CHEAP homes too, I am talking 60-80k for a 2 story 1880s property with renovations. For work I'd assume remote is ideal

I'm originally from Iroquois Co. so I was expecting to see Woodworth, Effner, and/or Pittwood on the list but they aren't incorporated so their populations must be listed in neighboring towns. I wonder how many more communities are not incorporated. Nice video.

I missed your videos and your beautiful voice, bless you.

Rowe, Illinois. Where I grew up

Burnt Prairie is in White County. Not sure of the population, but it's a very small town. Also Barnhill in Wayne County.

Floraville is kind of a unicorn. It's a suburb of a suburb (Millstadt) near St. Louis. You are correct, though, in that the UCC church is the only thing in town that's not a home.

Woodland, IL & Bondville, IL

Annapolis once had a high school.

You showed a picture of clover when you talked about Time. You could have at least found a picture of thyme.

Ott Ville, Magnolia, Holloway Ville, Compton. There are a lot more small ones in the one hundred or so residents. I was born in Ladd but moved in 1989.

Suggestion, Wilbern.... Great video!

We thought sure you would mention our hometowns Tioga and Mendon.

On this video where’s Argo Fay, Illinois? Fair Haven? Chadwick? Milledgeville? These are all small towns?

How many residents are porcupines?

You forgot Tamalco, Stolletown, and Frogtown.

And here I thought Brussels and Golden Eagle were small.

I grew up in Glenwood from about 4 - 14 years old (77 - 88) & i thought that area was small. Any videos referencing Glenwood?

Rockwood is my mom's hometown! Pretty sure every resident is a cousin of mine.

Loved the video! Where are you from in Illinois?

I always thought bensenville was small but compared to these no sir

Check out Loami (pronounced Low am I) only 400 people, 3 churches My ancestors are responsible for the name.

Mam what about carbondale wheather it's good for living or not

Do you ever critique Northern Illinois?

What bout Irving Illinois

Incredible!

Win a big lottery I would move to one. People will be sprawling back. Mark my words.

So much footage of agricultural work. Apparently locals own none of it. Agribusiness has a vertical supply chain which bypasses local businesses and services. The result has been the gradual evisceration of these towns.

Great statistics and narration! Not many are in medical/clerical in these areas. Awesome work on the demographics! Your work is greatly needed and appreciated!

What about Moonshine? Population 1,

I can make a list that big where I live and won't have to drive 20 miles in any direction to get there all with populations 50 or less. It's in northern Illinois.

4:08 I'm not hating at all, because I think that it's cute, but that's a European Robin, pretty lost if it ended up in Illinois. Great video, very informative.

What were those cows doing :D

I lived in Genoa IL for 10 years

great content

I just visited Illinois I think it’s a beautiful state

What about Putnam...I live there

Annapolis, some of my ancestors lived/buried here. My great grandparents lived here as well my grandfather on my mother's side, No, I'm not going to be critical of your filming, I've got a drone myself so how can I tell you Ï don't like your filming? I'm not good at the drone but I do know photography (stills, black & white) got my own darkroom so I'm not going to be critical of your filming. Thanks for this video. :)

Can I find a job in any of the the above 10 small places.Cuz I wanna live peace full life being a senior citizan.Your help will be much appreciated.

Interesting! I'm from Chicago

Any population under 700 is considered a village?

I'm from Alpha, south of the QCA... and I was surprised to see that people still live in Gulfport... I thought the floods of '93 wiped it off the map??

How do you find information this obscure 😭😭

@ 00:45 Barnography. Fornicowtion. The Hot Beef Injection. Wine me, Dine me, Sixty Bovine me....

Why didn’t Moonshine population 2 make your list ?