ILLINOIS: Sad Towns That Are Slowly Dying

all right everyone I am in Kentucky about to cross into Illinois I'm approaching a bridge that's famous in these parts really narrow it's always an adventure to cross it now the river you see below me that I'm about to cross is the Ohio it is at this spot that the Ohio empties into the mighty Mississippi right there that's the Mississippi in the distance uh this peninsula right here you can see a couple trees there right in the middle of Frank that is the bottom of Illinois and then over here on the other side is Missouri get a look at the other side there's the Ohio thank you Australian Siri a lot of river traffic isn't there a lot of Commerce anyway uh I am Crossing into Illinois right now and I will stop and tell you the places I'll be visiting on this trip then I just always love Crossing this bridge I like to show it to people because it is an adventure [Applause] so much fun all right so now I am in Illinois and uh I'm gonna stop and tell you what's going to happen in this video all right I am in Cairo now I've already done a video of This Town so I'm not going to spend very much time here I just always like checking out the town when I go or I'm in the area to see how things are going here plus there are a couple of things I missed in my visit here that I wanted to show you real quick of course this is old downtown Carol most of the buildings have been destroyed torn down but there's a few things still here including this old theater anyway uh let's see let me pull over and uh show you what I'm gonna do all right here's the map you can see I'm here in Cairo at the very bottom of Illinois and basically what I'm going to do today is visit towns all along the Ohio and finish in Metropolis and once in Metropolis I'm going to take a picture with Superman that's right because as many of you know that is Superman's hometown now if you follow me on Instagram you'll see that picture or you will have seen that picture already if you want to follow me on Instagram put a link below on Instagram I post pictures of places I've been but usually a day or two before the video goes up so you can get a or get an idea of what video is coming up next if you want to follow me on Instagram anyway a couple things I want to show you here and then we'll move on now people have asked the question where do people in Cairo shop they have a Dollar General I believe that's it last time I was here that was the only place but yep Dollar General now these two buildings here are significant so I'm going to show them to you real quick uh let me turn around so I can give you a better view here that is the Cairo custom house that was built in 1912 it is on a national register as you can well guess it is italianate architecture which is very rare as far as government buildings are concerned and um what's fascinating about this is that's where the post office was the post office in there was the third busiest in the United States the third busiest and so they built this post office here in 1942 huge post office but shortly thereafter the town began declining and now both of them just basically are empty monuments to what was beautiful though yeah all right so yes they do have police here it's right here I'm in the parking lot and they do have a fire department I was asked about that there it is now of course the short story about this town is that it was once flourishing almost 16 000 people it is nearly gone now about 1500 people 1500 people live here now there is no gas station no grocery store no hotels the only place to buy food is that Dollar General and much of the city is in ruin and if you want to see more of that go to my Cairo video and you can see all that I explored a lot of the neighborhoods in that video I'm not going to do that now like I said this is just going to be a quick drive-through interestingly even though there are no gas stations in this town you can buy a new Ford yeah they have a Ford dealership here looks like a convenience store of some sort has opened it wasn't open when I was here and uh wow looks like they do have a liquor store that's now open that wasn't open last time I was here I I was I didn't really run the numbers when I was here before because I really I wasn't doing that yet so I ran the numbers here and uh surprised me a little um crime is not high here people tell me crime is high in Cairo it's not last year 12 incidents per 1000 people us average is 23 so it's right at half the crime rate of the United States as a as a whole and uh of course incomes are low 20 000 a year per capita 29 000 a year median household poverty is pretty high 29 but I've been to places much higher there's the former grocery store it's been closed a long time um the thing that really sticks out here and will stick out in all the towns in this video is the median home values they are extremely low in all these towns the lowest honestly I've ever seen of any of the towns I've visited and we'll start with it here median home value here in Cairo is 30 400. and well there you see it anyway thirty thousand four hundred that's astonishing to me but that's going to be the theme of this video all the homes in these or all the towns I'm about to visit the median home values are very very low so anyway um we'll get to that here in a second this town is filled with 10 uh homes being retaken by Nature you know I use that term a lot it was even suggested to me to make a t-shirt of it maybe I'll do that but of course that is what you see all over this town anyway I got a couple other things to show you real quick I normally won't film schools because uh you know I don't like filming kids but it's Saturday today so I'll show you the school real quick here in Cairo it's about 9 A.M 39 degrees outside Fahrenheit which is 4 degrees Celsius but an answer to your question yes the kids go to school here there's an elementary too I can't remember exactly where that is but I'll just show you the uh Junior Senior High School and it's right on the edge of town here there's flood wall slash rail line the entire city is surrounded by flood walls in fact if it floods this town has been described to be like an island anyway uh let's see one of the things I did want to show last time that I'm going to show this time is the gate to the flood wall it's really interesting looking so it's uh right here Let Me Wait for traffic to clear and I'll show it to you okay yeah so I'm gonna pull up here you can see the massive gate that uh shuts down when it's um obviously when there's a really bad storm that's it right there see where it slides down isn't that something amazing all right uh on to the next town all right everyone I'm entering Mound City now this town in 1910 had a population of 2 800 people which is pretty good sized today there are a little over 500. so that's a pretty massive population decline beautiful house here already right off the bat that is really nice uh let's see median age here is 41. and uh gender breakdown is 52 male 48 female per capita income 18 800 it's about 360 a week take a look around here I already see a gas station I find that interesting that this town which is a third the size of Cairo has a gas station and Cairo does not Rick's Quick Stop additionally crime in this town much much higher than Cairo overall crime rate in this town is 32 incidents per 1000 people U.S average is 23. so uh yeah crime's quite a bit higher and uh violent crimes were 6.9 incidents per 1000 U.S average is 3.9 so that's uh nearing twice higher than the US average for violent crime pretty much driven through downtown why don't I go into some residential let's take a look with this kind of population loss gonna see some abandoned infrastructure of all kinds already seen it uh look these are a couple of churches it's rare you see churches abandoned but uh here we are these have been long forgotten there's another one across the street here [Music] median home value again very very low 38 300. so the price of a car these days for that kind of money you can get a house here but it looks like you'll have to put some work into it this one pretty sure is abandoned now um looks like it doesn't it but I'm seeing a mix look over here that's a beauty this is probably some sort of historical home but it has been well taken care of and it is a beautiful home well let's see a little more info do the race break down 58 percent White 39 black one percent Hispanic uh one percent Asian I don't think I gave you a median household incomes 46 300 so that's about 890 a week that the average household or yeah median household lives on well let me look around see what else I can find again what I expected to see here a lot of abandoned homes look at that great old is that an international that's an international truck isn't it that's worth some money all the tires are inflated too it might run I wonder if whoever owns that knows he could get a few bucks for that huh well anyway let's see there is a County Courthouse up here let's go take a look at it yeah this is County Courthouse here some police cars out front let's take a look at this real quick I didn't see any uh any information on this building so I don't have any but uh there it is Pulaski County Courthouse it's a pretty nice building that's some huge grain elevators over here too right on the river let's see some of what's left of the downtown a few buildings here a lot have been torn down that may have been an old Rexall but the sign is gone sure somebody took it put it in their man cave that's what I would do I'll give you a look see where I'm at real quick uh see Cairo down at the bottom that's where I just was Mountain City's right on the river here by the way I'm gonna go to Mounds next which is right here after we're done in this little town let's see I've been looking for a way to check out the Ohio River looks like I found it finally ooh this is a bumpy road uh let's see if I drive up here should be able to see the Ohio there she is the Ohio River nice uh let's see behind me here hopefully you can see that well I'm basically heading out of town now so uh let's head to the small town of Mounds next that's coming up all right everyone I am in Mounds Illinois pretty close to Mound City like Mound City and Cairo this town has had significant population drop 1920 there were nearly 2 700 people here today there's a little over 600. I am driving into downtown they do have a fire department looks like and a bank I guess it's open anyway here's downtown you can see it's quite decayed and this is pretty much it some of the other numbers median age is 42. gender breakdown 51 female 49 male let's see the race breakdown uh 91 black six percent white one percent Hispanic the rest is other per capita income right at fifteen thousand it's a shade under 300 a week median household incomes really low here 27 000 a little over 440 dollars a week that's what everybody in the household makes all together combined I'm talking maybe a husband and a wife their 15 year old kid everybody over 15 years old all their incomes lumped together averaged out in this town it's 27 000 a year a little over about 440 a week poverty is 26 percent for children it's uh 32 17 and under people 65 and over it's 22 percent let's see Mounds First Baptist Church I'm gonna look around the town here but I expect to see significant well already seen it decline in infrastructure and of course abandoned homes imagine we will see a lot of that um let's see crime crime is low here you don't expect that usually High poverty crime comes with it but not here uh 11 incidents per 1000 people last year U.S average is 23. so it's less than half the U.S rate crime is violent crime 2.4 incidents per 1000 U.S average 3.9 and property crime 8.8 per 1000 U.S average is 20. uh let's see those are the numbers I'm going to look around the town they've got a few things going on here surprisingly I'm going to uh do a shot of driving into the town and you can see quite a bit of what's going on here just from that so I'm gonna do that here in just a second another home that is die in a slow death here is the median home value in this town 26 500. that's what a house will cost you here that's a used car price what do you guys think that house is worth tell me what you think abandoned gas station but let's see across the street the Dollar General looks like a new one too all right so a little bit farther into town uh they have a grocery store here Stop and Shop looks fairly new and modern too doesn't it all right so yeah there's this uh Stop and Shop and um let's see immediately you see homes and um yeah you're seeing the what was it 26 000 a year you're seeing evidence of it see if I can just drive slow here [Music] um a lot of them look abandoned I mean look it's like a mini Detroit here uh this is everywhere let's see I'm back out on this main drag again see a few of the houses over here but yeah more of the same um let's see ya let's turn down this street abandoned homes everywhere okay this is the craziest thing like I said it's it's like Detroit a little bit because in Detroit you go through these neighborhoods and uh you know you see homes where people live in next to homes like this one that is looks like it's caught on fire and just uh disintegrating there's several here and uh that's totally gone that house there is just falling into itself wow laughs I had uh I was talking to someone in a hotel and I was talking to him about Cairo and they go oh you should go to Mounds it's maybe worse and I poop hot it I go nah no way it might be it's every bit as bad I mean look at this house here it's just I mean it's hard to believe they just let it fall into itself like that this is everywhere this is crazy stuff here hmm every street you go down in this little town you've seen a lot of this right here it's a main street right there or I don't know if it's the main street because it's not downtown but it's where I guess you would call it the main street now or all the economic activity is so uh yeah let's head to the next town foreign I am driving into the town of Joppa now Google Maps has never been down here and I couldn't find much in the way of pictures of the town on the internet so for the first time ever I have no idea of what I'm driving into no idea what this town looks like let's see I can tell you the numbers though uh there's about 280 people who live here Peak population was in 1940 there were 600 just shy so it's lost about half its population um median age is 26. so that is very young welcome to the Village of Joppa okay uh let's see gender breakdown is interesting here 63 percent male 37 female so the ladies have some options um home values here are very low I'll get to that in a second but I guess we're kind of seeing that already a little bit let's see per capita income here is 17 500 that's about 330 340 a week median household income 34 400. a little over 600 660 a week the average household lives on poverty uh 18 percent that's not too bad for a little town like this okay let's see the race break down 92 percent White five percent black and uh rest is other crime let's see overall crime 32 incidents per 1000. that's higher than the U.S average of 23. so crime is uh a little bit of an issue here violent crime 6.9 per 1000 U.S average 3.9 so not quite twice higher median home value 36 900. so you can get a house here for about the price of a car ah well serious saying I'm dead center of town now if there is a downtown I guess this is it Living Waters Full Gospel there's a church but there's no cross up there I wonder if I got taken down I guess I'll look around a bit like I said I have no idea where to go or what's here it's really odd that Google Maps has never come down here they pretty much go everywhere but um yeah they have not been here this looks like it may have been a gas station at one time but it is long gone and we got a cemetery here oh I guess we'll see what's this way a lot of mobile homes and uh they're in poor condition I was wondering if I was going to get a cat siding did you see that one run across here's one right here there you go fella it's okay you can cross my path black cat there he goes good cat sighting acquired it looks like they are hiding out underneath that trailer um yeah it looks like a lot of mobile homes that are not in great condition so that might explain low uh home values here not seeing the abandoned homes not yet anyway I'll look around a bit hmm this looks like it's some kind of store and it says it's open looks like it was some well no there's just a couple of vending machines there that's it wow that's interesting and another church here Joppa Baptist says yeah there you go that one does have a cross interesting I don't know if that's a city hall Maybe it doesn't say anything may have been a garage there at one time that is closed down now get your car worked on anyway uh let's see let's get a glimpse of the Ohio huh I'm sure this is a boat ramp you want to go fishing yep that's it there's the Ohio this road dead ends so uh and it says private property in big letters a lot of churches for a town of under 300. am I right United Methodist and uh what's this a house for sale how much do you think they want for that for sale by owner what do you think that house is worth interesting uh well and they have a fire department hmm I guess I'm gonna head out of here head to Superman's hometown of metropolis all right everyone I am driving into the town of metropolis you can already see Superman down at the end of the street here how exciting I'm gonna go take a picture of myself with him and put it on my Instagram like I told you earlier I have Instagram linked in the description field below if you want to go check it out Superman hell yeah Superman Museum right here I'm gonna get out on foot here let's see if I can find a place to park I found one already so let's go check out this downtown well you can see the kids having a good time in front of Superman [Music] and why wouldn't they he is an icon let's go take a look around the downtown here though everything Superman here oh cool huh even have uh Superman's phone booth right there how about that cool unless I take a walk up this charming downtown tell you a little bit about it I see the population first it's about 6 000 people here Peak population was 1960 they were a little over 7 300. so it's lost a little bit of population not a lot meeting age 46. gender breakdown 58 female 42 male hmm a lot more women here phone booths that you can pop in if you need to change into your Superman outfit I wonder if that works let me see no no sound anyway okay let's see the race breakdown 87 white four percent black five percent Hispanic ooh almost fell rest other yeah everything Superman here super big boy I bet you'd never saw that before and we got the Superman themed Marilyn Monroe how awesome poverty is 14 that is pretty much in line with the US average seems like a healthy City per capita income 23 700 so what's that about 460 a week that the average person lives on median household income forty five thousand eight hundred that's almost 900 a week uh crime is right at the national average 25 per 1000 25 incidents U.S average is 23. pretty solid town wow people here and it's a pretty nasty day but it's really hopping in the summer here's Lois Lane she's at the top of the street actually went right past her didn't see her the first time yeah there's the Main Street yeah here you go Lois Lane interesting statue over I love it all right I'm out in the Bronco now just so you know Superman's not the only game in town they got a Harris Casino here uh let's see median home value here is 84 400. I bet that one's worth more though that is a beauty quite a few pretty houses over here it's a beautiful home this big gray house is for rent how much do you think that would cost a month that is a big house it's beautiful huh yeah I'd be really curious if someone knows uh put it in the comment section but yeah what would a house like that rent for a month here and Metropolis Illinois now many of you are always asking about grocery stores in these little towns well here's this towns Big John and uh Big John's known for his big John in the front the Big John statue uh let's see let me see if I can turn around and go the other direction so you can see him better okay all right here's a look Big John grocery Big John out front that is pretty cool well this is the Ohio River you can definitely see that it is swollen let's see some of the parking lot here is underwater that is Kentucky over there those bridges there I think across into Paducah um which you saw in my previous video anyway uh yeah that's going to be it for this video we are heading up to Springfield next going to visit the Illinois State Capitol and I will be doing another small town drive around and then after that Gary Indiana so uh that's what's coming up next be looking for those

Channel: Joe & Nic's Road Trip

Views: 798,012

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Id: vAM1AzpC3T4

Length: 41min 21sec (2481 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 16 2023