Exploring the Forgotten City that America Abandoned - Cairo, Illinois

[Music] [Music] out in kyal where the Sun beats down with all its might out in Cyro where a big red moon shines every night where the baly breezes are blowing where the Rippling waters are flowing to my native land if you are going don't forget to take it all the s when you drop off at Cyro ill a delegation at the station will meet you you're bound to like each Cyro girl and boy each native's manner is so hail and Hearty it's like a family party down where the old Ohio fls to the Mississippi you'll find a new kind of Joy a brand of sunshine you will find that's hotter than the Egypt kind when you drop off that musty Dusty Cairo Illinois when you drop off at CYO today we will be exploring one of the most interesting cities in the United States a former great City located at the Confluence point of two of the largest rivers in North America this city was once a hub for River Transportation industrial jobs and even City life and all that is left is an abandoned city welcome to Koo Illinois [Music] [Music] [Music] the land between two rivers the Ohio River and the Mississippi first European settlers entered the region in the early 1800s with the obvious perfect location along a major river many early explorers call this area Little Egypt for its similar Riverport design the name Koo was given but said a little differently and the city was named official in 1836 the boom of the river Steamboat is what propelled Koo to early greatness before the construction of the two Bridges Steamboat fairies were the only means of transporting Travelers across the two rivers with Koo being what's in between making it a must-stop destination for hotels food and entertainment in early America the city was also very important with connecting vast Geographic distances together in 1846 a Terminus was built in Koo connecting the town to the Illinois Central Railway the first railroad that connected Chicago to New Orleans thus making Koo the middle point of travel between the great lakes and the Gulf of Mexico as the civil war broke out the rivers in America along with the railroads were utilized more making it a great decision to build a fort at the Confluence of both Rivers thus creating Fort Defiance at the southernmost tip of Cairo which was a crucial Union Fort in the Civil War and brought even more people to the region with the war over the steamboat industry opened back up just in time for the first boom of the city before the war the population of Koo was 200 and in the next 10 years the population would rise 800% to 2,000 residents in 1860 and from then on the numbers of people moving to Caro would rise year after year for several more decades before peaking in 1920 at 15,000 residents in the time between 1870 and 1920 many new barriers would come to the surface that would only be the first Spark of the downfall of the city in the 1910s The Great Migration was a movement of African-Americans leaving the segregated South and moving to Northern Midwestern and western states for better living conditions and less segregation from Jim Crow laws still in effect and by 1900 Koo had 13,000 residents 5,000 of those who were black and this was a very unusually high black population for a town of kiro's size making a pretty big divide between races and in 1909 the first of many uprises for the community occurred on the night of November 11th 1909 two men were lynched after days of unrest from the community members after residents didn't think the town's judicial system was working fast enough so the community took matters into their own hands at night a huge mob formed and broke into the local police station and they dragged out two men first man lynched was a black man named William James James who is allegedly responsible for the murder of Anna Pell a young white woman killed 3 days earlier the town took William James and brought him to the center of town attempted to hang him but the Rope broke twice after the Rope broke the second time he was shot over 500 times decapitated his head put on a stick and his body was dragged through town as women and children would kick and spit the headless man and the mob was not satisfied yet the second man dragged out of the police station was a white man named Henry salner who had allegedly murdered his wife the previous August with an axe and the mob killed him as well the decline of the steamboat industry in the early 20th century hurt koo's economy significantly by the time of the 1960s the unemployment rate in Koo was far more than twice the national average and the poverty was widespread amongst both black and white people in the city causing a lot of frustration and by the 1960s civil unrest was at its peak in America and in 1967 a 3-day Riot began in the city with the alleged jail house suicide of US Army private Robert hunt a young African-American Soldier on leave in his hometown of Koo police said hunt hung himself with his t-shirt inside his cell but koo's African-American residents challenged that story after years of police brutality the death touched off 3 days of riots and protests for 3 Days businesses burnt down fire bombs were placed around the city and when rescue crews would arrive the riers would wait in the shadows and attack the First Responders with Guerilla Warfare many shootouts would occur in these three days and it was literally considered a war zone with the National Guard being sent down to the city more specific details of the violence can be found online but I won't be diving too much into that violent history because there is simply too much and it's too graphic but it's worth the read if you want more insight of the city's history a group of white women gathered at St Mary's Park in Caro to Stage a march on City [Music] Hall suddenly with whites masked on one side of the street and blacks masked on the other taunts began to be shoted back and forth then a stone was Hur and then more stones were thrown State Police and the Illinois Attorney General's office were issued weapons and moved out to patrol the deserted streets the uprising all sparked from the death of Robert hunt and the black population of town was then demanding Fair political representation an end to police brutality and an end to the job disparity in town which was 90% white at the time after 3 days of violence and quotes from the leaders of the uprise Rising saying Koo will look like Rome burning to the ground if their demands weren't met after National Guard was retracted and the riots ended a problem arose in retaliation amongst the white community members that same month over 600 white residents including prominent members of the community formed a vigilante group and for the next 2 years day and night members of this group patrolled Koo with firearms and police dogs they conducted paramilitary drills and were empowered by the sheriff's department to threaten and arrest black residents they became known as the white hats due to the white helmets they wore during their duties this then created three years of violence shootouts the burning of businesses and much more Guerilla Warfare between races and by the 70s the violence had ended but a new way of boycotting began with the united front boycott in town black residents would then boycott purchasing from White businesses some people are still calling wanting to know when the barcard is going to be over the problem is this we have black people who are asking for certain things and we got a bunch of old white people like pton Berlin and Har Bing who are saying never so the boycott uh don't even ask about it it's still on it'll be on and we don't want to see you downtown in fact we recommend that you don't go downtown thus creating a mass Exodus of white residents in the coming years the businesses that were shut down and abandoned in those years never reopened and a lot of Koo hasn't changed since no residential homes were built over the last 50 years and as of 2020 the population of Koo is 1700 89% less than its peak population only 100 years ago and that's all the history if you enjoy the video leave a thumbs up and let's go explore today we're starting our video at the location of why Koo is so significant and it's the convergent point of two major rivers what we're looking at right here is the Mississippi River Over the Horizon that is Missouri we are standing in the southernmost tip of Illinois and over our left shoulder is the Ohio River so the Ohio river meets the Mississippi and across is the great state of Kentucky and this is a huge conversion point before the railroads were constructed here in America everything that was traded or bared went by Ocean or went by Waterway and this being the Mississippi over here being the Ohio two major rivers connecting Koo was a huge point of Transportation before the railroad boom and because of these two rivers is the reason this place is is so significant today we're traveling and exploring this ghost town during a major total Sol solar eclipse so this park is very very very packed as we we are directly in the line of where this eclipse is going to be in its totality so we're just checking out this park here in the very southernmost tip of Koo and we're going to be moving up towards the town where less and less people will be so we we will be checking out this ghost town to its true setting and that is with no one around hopefully you guys do enjoy and let's get away from all these people okay now we're starting our adventure down Main Street you could see here there was once a business says the Maxine could have been a hotel or something clearly this was the lobby or the entryway you could see it was once orate but the buildings has since been demolished we're going to be walking down this Main Street and showing you a bit of what the entertainment and the business life was was like down here some buildings are gone like where this bank once stood but we're going to have a lot of indications of what was once here in this once great City you could see all the ornate tile work very clean to this day from all the rainfall just hitting it but many of these old businesses are just gone plots of land all that's left of a once great City along with the original light fixtures as you'll be seeing as we walk down the roads many of them are dilapidated and broken but that's what happens to a city that drops over 10,000 people in a 50-year span what a sight you have this pretty beautiful gazebo but lum over this park we have buildings that just look like we're in a third world country here dilapidated falling apart you could see right through them and this is the main street here walking amongst all the destruction here I just like seeing the little details of all these forgotten buildings you could see the beautiful tile work put into all of this place the population of Koo peaked in 1920 when there was about 16,000 residents here and as of the 2020 census there is a whopping 1,700 people 1,7 00 so the population of this city has dropped tremendously way more than half nearly 75% almost entirely everything of what they had here is gone so everything that remains is just a shadow of the past I read online there hasn't been a new building constructed here in many years it it took over 50 years for a new building to be constructed here in this town and we're standing in front of one of the most beautiful buildings here this is The Gem Theater absolutely gorgeous Marquee you could see the neon on the sign definitely one of the most beautiful buildings here worth seeing and saving I would say can imagine once back in the day there's even a trolley line that was on the road here Cairo Chamber of Commerce got the building wide open this is under the market key of The Gem Theater you can see the deterioration of the iron ceiling or the tin ceiling excuse me they have that original Green still kind of protected beautiful theater [Music] wow this theater is beautiful they removed all the seats but you still have a pretty good view of what the stage and everything look like we're going to move from the stage area and check out the lobby here see if there's anything left still got a little bits of original carpet but the floor is pretty weak from all the water damage that's evident these are the main doors that you enter but you could see the collapse ing both in that room and above this place is a mess looks like they might have had movie posters here it's a cool design somebody tossed this old record player but this was the original way of creating some music here here in this theater it probably was setting on this [Applause] table love the little details above the doors right under the stage you have a drop down area if I'm yeah I can go right down but if I'm correct back in the day they would have orchestras playing in here or live music things for plays and that nature I'm sure this was originally for plays but later got converted for Motion Pictures very impressive theater I do love the Velvet curtains still hanging up too we're going to head to the upper deck [Applause] here could see the original carpet or one of them got the red and up here we have the upper deck and the projector rooms over there see if any of them are left looks like some people were having a party in here with the Twisted te's oh the projector [Music] room the wood is soft oh they took out the projectors that's sad but they probably went to a better home instead of being rotting away in here you could see very little details of the past in this theater you could see some pink highlights some yellow they go really well together I'm not sure if those are the original colors of this theater but I appreciate the little designs here it's almost our deco this theater has definitely kept its color throughout the years seeing if there's any dressing rooms or anything behind the stage there's not but we could see where all the seats went they're all back here just written with the numbers on them I think that's going to be it for this little theater here a very cool look into the past of how the people of Koo used to spend their time enjoying entertainment here but once everybody left places like this couldn't stay open for both the reasoning of people wouldn't show up to see the movies people didn't want to work here and really nobody came and this is where what happens to places of that nature really quiet got another building here it has some sort of little awning on the entrance here it's labeled AF and am not sure what this was got a light on inside I'm not sure what this place is maybe it's still active as we're getting closer to the building you could see that it was paid by the M Masonic fraternity so that explains it this was the Sonic Lodge here in Koo they called it the AF and am building looks like it could have been like a warehouse or something this front area is very confusing they obviously added it later for many businesses to be leasing here here we are walking down another side of Main Street we have a residential home here and next to it an enormous perhaps a market building but it was a main strip for business and Retail could see all the windows boarded but each one of those was probably a bank a barber shop maybe a deli a butcher all sorts of things you would need in a city but now this place is completely a shell of what it once is I'm just so glad these buildings are still standing and you could walk on these old roads like you like he would be back a hundred years ago not much has changed yeah this could have been like a meat market or a butcher special offer that looks pretty old a text such a beautiful old building I love this Main Street District of all these businesses here a lot of old America still showing itself here in this old town it's what I love to see check this out we have an old car abandoned behind the storefront what is this wow this thing is really cool looking it's a Cadillac beautiful American Car unfortunately rotting away [Music] here all right now stepping away from Main Street which is right there the Marquee of the gem we are now on the westmost region of the area we're going to be taking a look at this Levy here and this protects kro from severe flooding to this day so we're just going to take a look here at the Ohio River why and we have a lot of people here just hanging out getting ready for the total solar eclipse that is today got a lot of people here on the Ohio River and as I mentioned before the Ohio River a major Waterway for industrial trading and such still used to this day we have a push barge over there and many different barges out in the water carrying sand gravel and other construction equipment and supplies you know that's what this region is known for producing very beautiful day here we're going to be checking out some murals and then going down to see some mansions and then we're going to enjoy the eclipse soon here we also have an old Caboose here for a train Illinois Central Main Line of Mid America city of Koo Illinois and we could jump right in this thing wow so you have a Old Furnace probably for coal to power this thing and here we got the two control areas you got a seat over here on the left and a seat on the right that's pretty much it we have a swivel chair over here whoa a lot of warping in the floor swivel chair does not swivel no more but this is a pretty cool area old refrigerator for the long trips on the rail here this is up where the conductor would be sitting this is his view that's what he gets to see this a little window here other guy over there would be chilling there there probably had to have control right here looks like a main switch right here not sure about much of the controls of these old trains just cool to be in one didn't expect to find this now we're going to follow the levy down to a mural wall that has a bunch of old paintings of what this place used to be known for we have went down the road some along the levy wall and we are entering the residential area away from the downtown region and still we have the site of many mom and pop stores we have some auto body shops and all these other community centers this just completely abandoned you could see the sidewalks are once completely brick laid but over the years the overgrowth has taken over and you could really no longer see these beautiful streets we have many houses that are vacant here but we're going to turn our attention to the murals that have been painted here by the locals and they kind of try to keep the patriotism going for this old Midwest town so we're going to pay some tribute to some of these local murals that the artists here have painted got some industrial ruins over here Glenn's Livery Little Ghost sign up there in this industrial part of town not sure what that means maybe someone could inform me of what a livery is exactly now we find ourselves along the levy wall and actually to our left is a train track a railroad track that is no longer this is the end of the road here so that is that's a sign of a ghost City when the railroads sto coming but we have the levy wall we have some beautiful murals here to give us the artistic view of this historical City story of Koo with the beautiful Steamboat it's a really cool mural there these murals are dedicated to the ambitious Spirit of the many people born in First America I can't really read this a lot of it has faded I'm not sure when this was made thank you to the various artists cont contributions and students who surrendered their time money and talent to create our aesthetic story from which many can learn history to the visitor may you develop a passion for history may you spend a moment or prayer or Ponder how something came from nothing hundreds of years ago and how we should preserve what is left of it lastly may it be our attitude to dream new dreams and use them to inspire others very moving quote here in a ghost City I'm sure you can learn a lot from you know evidence of what cities like this have been like came and went old industrial towns many of them in America that's why I've been documenting so many and learning it's very interesting to learn history here in our own backyard that is really not taught in schools but this shows us the evolution of the land here here we have some murals of the natives we have some explorers and their navigation paths pretty cool also have a mural of Lewis and Clark who probably came through this area on their long Expedition and lastly we have a picture of when this land was purchased I guess this was a part of the Louisiana purchased yeah yeah Koo is actually right along that route you could see what the US was before the Louisiana Purchase everything that's in red and then Cairo is dead in the middle so very historical land very thankful to the men and women who have painted these murals given us a little bit of insight into the past and history here and as we take that history with us let's go head back into the town and see some more ruins of this former great city and what is currently left of it if you guys are enjoying leave a thumbs up because I'm loving this Ghost Town let's keep moving on so we have approximately 10 minutes until total solar eclipse so what I'm doing is I found an abandoned apartment building or maybe it was an abandoned Hotel here right on the Ohio River I'm going to go up the top I think it's like 8 Nine Stories and we're going to try to see the eclipse from there hopefully we get a good view so the hotel is right there that I wanted to get on top of to see the eclipse but there's a gentleman right there walking his dog and I don't want to cause any alerion of what we're doing out here but we have a nice little spot on top of the levy here where we're going to be able to see the eclipse it's happening very very soon guys there is a total solar eclipse right now happening hopefully my camera could capture it properly it's so cool I could see the fire of the sun right behind the shadow of the moon on the on the bottom portion the eclipse is just finally starting to break so the sunlight is now it's going to completely become sunlight again here in a second wow you could see you could just see the light rays you just street lights just turned off light sensor finally saw enough light turn them off some are still on in the city there's only about a crescent the bottom Crescent of the sun popping out of the bottom of the Moon and yet it's still so so lit completely abandoned storefronts here we have an old car lot with one abandoned car Left Behind red convertible not sure what kind of car that is maybe some car enthusiasts could let me know it says Toyota so that's a '90s or oh it's a late 80s Celica Toyota that thing looks pretty cool I like how it's sunf faded and red beautiful car just rotting here in this Old Town [Music] got a business here not sure what it was SE severely decayed though got some offices wood paneling probably last updated in the 70s sometime seems like the last time anybody was here and we're inside this door was wide open so we walked in General Electric product book oh wow this could have been a general electric company General Electric product man 1947 some cool stuff right off the rip here got all these cubicles here nothing left just an old 1970s office building no technology or anything left behind just an eerie place got a stamped envelope 2011 so we turned down some residential streets this one's 17th 17th Street and this is an entire Street of abandoned h Homes here it's kind of haunting this one's consumed in Vines 227 17th Street completely collapsed you could see a wheelchair wheel and a vacuum but the house has since collapsed more completely collapsed houses this house is for sale $815 would you guys buy this somebody's inside somebody's inside that house I heard footsteps loud ones this is a poor income area so I don't want to disturb anybody if they're using these houses for shelter um I understand why they are because they're still around and I just don't want to intrude on anybody and make them think that I'm a threat so I'm going to keep my distance and we're going to head to another neighborhood to explore some beautiful homes that are still here in the beautiful city of cro we even have abandoned schools here in Koo this is Bennett Elementary School over there on the sign it says goodbye Bennett we will miss you so not a good sign for a dying Community when you have elementary schools closing their doors got some cool old buses left behind in this lot I think somebody still owns these These are in pretty good condition look at these houses here beautiful that one's like a pink Victorian a tiny little thing so sad it's all abandoned you have this one so many abandoned houses this one's beautiful look at the vines on the side this place is like a fairy tale this is a real abandoned city so many homes abandoned here so many that I'm not filming because they're just surrounded just there too many [Music] is [Music] we are now in the Washington Avenue section of Koo and this is known as millionaires row these are some of the most beautiful preserved houses in this city still and there is a mixx of beautiful preserved Victorian age mansions and a mix of dilapidated Victorian age Mansions as we are going to be walking around this block here this is one of the most beautiful mansions here definitely love the brick and all the iron all around the property here we love to see the inside of that place another beautiful house not so friendly dogs so across the way you could see Other Mansions of the same time period actually probably a little bit older than Victorian but made of less expensive material just wood just right across the way of the Magnolia Manor this one was built in 1869 and it usually has tours but don't know if they're open today but we're going to get a little bit of a close look at this beautiful place before we head on down the road further check out that bees nest up there on the top of that awning there's bees all around me right now this is kind of terrifying but the hive is up there it's huge so many bees all over and just right across the road we have another old mansion this one built in 1865 the riverlore Mansion this 1865 Mansion originally built by William Halliday was purchased by the city of kro November 23rd 1999 and preserved and open to the public it has placed since have been placed on the national register very beautiful property here we have enormous trees over here these must have been planted a couple 100 years ago because these are all strategically placed and you could see how big they are right beside this mansion this town really has it all I would definitely come back here many times and probably still not see enough so I just realized the brick on the sidewalk here it's all labeled Egyptian I don't know what that's all about very strange I know the name of this place is named after the Egyptian city capital but just very interesting little thing beneath my feet that I just noticed all right everybody that's going to do it for today's Explorer we explored the entire city of Koo Illinois a once industrial Boom Town at the center of two major rivers converging it's now a ghost town since railroad Transportation air transportation this place has completely became obsolete people don't travel through here despite how many people were here today because of the eclipse only because we were in the direct line of it it was a pleasure to walk around this old town and explore especially this old historic strip here I loved exploring this old theater where people the locals here had [Music] entertainment I love exploring this Old Town seeing the old buildings seeing the still preserved ones and seeing the history around this Old Town hopefully you guys did enjoy today's explore thank you for joining me today on Earth peace out guys have a good one out iny where the Sun beats down with all out in kyal where a big red moon shines every night where the baly breezes are blowing where the Rippling waters are flowing to my native land if you are going don't forget to take in all the s when you drop off at Cyro Illinois a delegation at the station will meet you you're bound to like each Cyro girl and [Music] each native's manner is so hail and Hearty it's like a family party down where the old Ohio Flo to the Mississippi you'll find a new kind of Joy a brand of sunshine you will find that's hotter than the Egypt kind when you d drop all F musty Dusty CYO Illinois when you drop all that cyoo [Music]

Channel: Dark Exploration Films

Views: 134,567

Keywords: urbex, urban, exploration, ue, exploring, exploringwithjosh, properpeople, danbell

Id: udF2Cb-OU50

Length: 52min 15sec (3135 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 21 2024