Howdy from Havana ,Illinois.

Another coal mine that went out of business before my time was the Little Sister Coal mine just south acrossed Route 100 from Saint  David, Illinois. Online about the only information I found about it was the years and company names.  This mine operated  from 1935 up until 1967.  The mine from 1935-1944 was under the comapny  Central States Collieries and the mine name was Little Sister and would remain the mine name up until it's last day in 1967.  From 1944 til 1965 it was under the company hand of Little Sister Coal Company before Truax Traer Coal Company took over in 1966 and operated it until 1967 when the mine closed.  It employed quite a few people over the years.  It also seen rail activity as well as they had a spur that came off the CB&Q line  that crossed the road over to this mine.  It apperas there may have been several tracks here and probably has several railroad chutes to load coal into the hoppers ov...

In 2008  Keokuk Junction Railway brought back the Santa train where they take a Santa to each location to entertain the children with the locomotives, the caboose and the Santa.  The railfans get a treat with the old FP9A  #1750 & #1752 units and the  F9B  #1761  so it's an old A-B-A line up plus a red caboose.  I stated going to the Santa events in 2009  but stayed in Canton for the most part until 2016 when I decide to chase them in each location which are Mapleton, Glasford, Breeds, Canton, Cuba and Smithfield, Illinois.  They start early leaving Kolbe and stopping at Mapleton around eight   in the morning or so.  Their last stop is Smithfield and by then around five or six o'clock it's dark or getting there.  It's all good fun for everyone.  I recommend it for any railfan that wants to chase KJRY.  A-B-A is a rare sight for other people so it will be worth if people decide ...

Here is part two of the Fulton County, Illinois ghost towns and there is quite a bit of them to cover. I included pictures of one that will be mentioned later called Civer between Canton and Cuba.  A sign is the only thing left to mark the site.  Anyways let's get this party started shall we and continue. Kerton Township: "West Point":  In 1847 Joel Onion platted West Point two years after the first school of that name was erected in section 30.  It never became nothing more than a landing and a shipping point on the Illinois River.  The coming of the Railroad in other areas was the end of the landing. Lee Township: "Virgil":  Virgil was an unplanned community which had a blacksmith shop, store,school,church and was in existence as early as 1840. It never made no pretense of being an official town. The methodist Church of Virgil was established in 1866 and has a cemetery  with stones as early as the 1940's era. The cemetery is the only th...

Ghost towns are abandoned villages that since disappeared or are no longer the population they were in their hey day after an economic down fall, disaster or whatever.  For me I consider a ghost town a town that no longer exists but may or may not leave traces behind of it's existence.  Fulton County has a lot of old historical towns like Canton which was founded in 1825 and Lewistown which was founded  years before Canton.  These towns are example of towns that managed to make it despite economic disasters and natural ones. Former towns which have signs marking their location like Civer between Canton and Cuba and Tuscumbia around Bernadotte are examples of towns that didn't make it and ceased to exist and into oblivion of history.  The only thing that is exists is those two signs that mark the location.  It's sad in a way but it is what it is and people who lived in these areas did what they had to for survival of the time period so if they moved to other...