The far reaches of southern Illinois are best known for the scenic beauty of Shawnee National Forest. The view becomes even more scenic the further south one travels, as the topography starts to shift to the edge of the Ohio River.
With the hills in mind, mining for minerals took place over many centuries. Northern Illinois – especially around the Galena area – had its lead. Southern Illinois had its fluorite, also named fluorspar. It is the official Illinois State Mineral.
According to the Illinois State Museum, “Fluorite is used as a flux in smelting iron, aluminum, and other metal alloys and in welding. It is also used in the manufacture of glass, enamel glazes, ceramics, cement, and other chemical compounds. Fluoride, derived from fluorite, is used in toothpaste, optical lenses, concrete hardeners, organic chemicals, plastics, refrigerants, nonstick coatings, lubricants, stain repellants, dyes, herbicides, anesthetics, cleaning solvents, and degreasing and foaming agents.” (Click on the link to learn more).
These minerals are purple in color, with varying shades from pale to dark. A large percentage – up to 75 percent – of the nation’s fluorite supply came from southern Illinois mines, with a large number of that figure coming from Hardin and Pope counties along the Ohio River. The town of Rosiclare, where Illinois Route 34 ends at the river, once was considered the “Fluorspar Capital of the World” due to its large mining operations.
That’s “once was” because fluorite is no longer mined in the area. Tough worldwide competition caused the last fluorite mine in the area to close in 1995.
When I went on my Illinois Route 1 trip in October 2025, I took a short detour along the Ohio River Scenic Byway (Illinois Route 146) from the Cave-in-Rock area to Golconda. Fluorite was just one thing in mind on my journey. There were a couple of more things, historically, that I was familiar with and wanted to scope out.
Golconda: Trail of Tears site
The removal of Native American tribes from the southeast United States in the early 1800s was a difficult period in our nation’s history. America grew, and White settlers didn’t want to deal with them, so the government arranged for the Natives to relocate west from their longtime homes with the 1830 Indian Removal Act. These forced removals had less-than-pleasant stories about them. One such westward path taken by the Cherokee was the Trail of Tears in 1838-39, which went through southern Illinois. Did you learn about that in history class? I did.
Crossing the Ohio River was a challenge for the Natives, who often had to wait in harsh conditions in order to safely cross the river. They crossed from Kentucky to Golconda, a town founded by 1798 by James and Sarah Lusk. The crossing site also had a ferry, owned by John Berry, and by some accounts he was reluctant to allow the Natives to utilize his ferry. The ferry closed in the early 1940s, and there is no crossing from Golconda today. In Illinois, the relocated Cherokee then had to cross the Mississippi about 50 miles west around Wolf Lake.
Golconda retains a lot of its historical setting, with downtown buildings withstanding the tests of time, and historic homes around the river used today in both private and museum capacities – including the Buel House State Historic Site. Golconda also is the county seat of Pope County, and its courthouse dates to 1872. When I drove by, one of the downtown buildings, the 1887 two-story Sweetwater Saloon, had suffered a partial collapse earlier in the year. A post on the Golconda Main Street Facebook page in January 2026 noted that an “original plan of full salvage was unable to happen.” The building was an Opera House more than a century ago.
Upon entering Golconda, I knew that it was more historically known for being a stop on the Trail of Tears, but this is not reflected on any welcome sign into town. However, a red sign for a young Wal-Mart yodeler from town is posted. He’s Mason “Little Hank” Ramsey, whose yodeling is captured on this YouTube video. The Wal-Mart appears to be in Harrisburg, north of town.
Rosiclare: Fluorspar Capital of the World
Making my way east from Golconda back to Hardin County, the Ohio River town of Rosiclare is a couple of miles south of Route 146 on Route 34. I had done a little research to find out that there was a mining museum in town, but later learned that it suffered a fire a few years ago and has not reopened. The museum was on the site of one of the fluorite mines in town. The signs still remain.
The mineral was discovered in Illinois in 1839 during a well digging about a mile west of town. This led to the opening of the Rosiclare Lead and Fluorspar Mining Co. in 1888, and it was one of the largest and deepest fluorite mines in the world. While the museum is permanently closed, there are a couple of places in town that still tell the town’s history being hand-in-hand with the fluorite mining industry. One of them is a historic marker at the museum site.
Fluorite mining around Rosiclare accelerated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as it became part of an Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District. Dozens of underground mines opened across Hardin County, with shafts eventually reaching more than 1,000 feet deep as demand surged for fluorspar in steelmaking, aluminum production, glass manufacturing and chemical processing. By the 1910s and 1920s, output had expanded dramatically, and during World War II Illinois surpassed Kentucky as the nation’s leading producer. From the 1940s through the 1950s, the district supplied the majority of the country’s fluorspar.
Mining operations, obviously, were a dangerous task. On April 12, 1971, a tragedy at the Barnett Mine near town claimed the lives of seven miners. They are memorialized in a small downtown park, which also has plenty of historical information on the town and its mining history – including a large clump of the mineral. The downtown is small, but it includes an independent grocery store, Bob’s Food Market – where the marquee sign tempted me to try a milkshake there. A defunct rail line running through the middle of the street, parallel to traffic, goes from the former mining company to the river, where much of what was dug was shipped worldwide.
I also drove around town to find an old high school there, but it was razed several years ago for the small county hospital. I did find part of the former grade school, which has since become a fitness center.
Elizabethtown: Hardin County’s seat
The success of fluorite mining led to a strong economy at one time, and matters not centric around the mineral revolved around Hardin County’s seat of Elizabethtown, a few miles east of Rosiclare. The small courthouse there sits in the middle of a hill, was built in 1927.
The hallmark of town is the Rose Hotel, (website) established in 1813 and – in its current bed-and-breakfast form – is the oldest guest quarters in Illinois. It was established five years before Illinois became a state by James and Elizabeth McFarlan. There was a period from the mid-1960s to 2013 when there was no vacancy, but now it is owned by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, who hires an operator for day-to-day management. The Hotel has five guest rooms, and some overlook the Ohio River. A gazebo and lookout shelter are also nearby.
Also helping to keep the economy alive in town is the Riverside Mercantile, housed in a former gas station which looks like the designs they were in the 1920s. Gifts ranging from local foods, at-home decor and tourist trinkets are sold, but the place’s busiest part is the ice cream and soda stand, which also serves other sweet treats. I bought an Elizabethtown key chain for my key chain tree. [Click here for the Mercantile’s Facebook page.] There also are a few restaurants in town, including a paid of old plastic Coca-Cola signs in front of two of the businesses; the one at Town and County Restaurant also has a Coca-Cola mural.
The old high school in town now is in private use. High school students in Hardin County attend at a newer building outside of town.
Cave-in-Rock, and Palmer’s Trading Post
(Much of this section of this piece comes from my Route 1 Trip Log, as Cave-in-Rock is the end of Route 1.)
The small community of Cave-in-Rock is where Route 1 ends after more than 300 miles. It’s a unique name for a town, but only so because there is a cave there along the Ohio River that is actually a rock formation (seen at the top of this post). This can be found at Cave-in-Rock State Park.
Cave-in-Rock, the town, also is home to an old opera house. One of the businesses in town is a rock shop, Palmer’s Trading Post, which has mined fluorite from the region. [Click here for its Facebook page.] The building was a former gas and service station long ago, and now has many large and small rocks and fluorite of varying degrees of purple/pink for sale. The owner, Joey, also gave me some history of the town, including the fate and location of its former high school – something I was looking to find out. Joey also informed me of the fate of the Rosiclare mining museum, which I was unsure of when I was in town.
Palmer’s fluorite and rocks come in various conditions from casual collector interest (me) to the high-grade stuff inside cases. I was told that a rock is no less than $5, and I grabbed a piece of fluorite that was as purple as I would like it to be. The place also buys and trades. There wasn’t a place in Rosiclare or Elizabethtown that had any fluorite (despite a sign at the Rose Hotel saying its gift shop had it), so I was glad I came away with something that hadn’t traveled very far from where it was mined. With the mining museum closed, this left Joey as my personal source for fluorite information that wasn’t displayed elsewhere on signs. I enjoyed my conversion with him.
The decline of the mining industry in this area has its economic effects, but this area is trying to hold its own with tourism – whether its Shawnee Forest, Cave-in-Rock State Park, or those who love scenic river drives. Then there are small shops like Palmer’s, Bob’s and the Mercantile that – in their own way – tell the local stories. They keep the history of fluorite mining in Illinois alive – and explain what toothpaste is partially made of.
Cody’s Road Trips 