I first learned about Shawneetown as a young child reading encyclopedias. Yes, I used to read encyclopedias as a kid, and once went a few months reading a set of 1962 World Books gifted by an aunt and uncle from “A” to “WXYZ.”
What fascinated me while reading is that an old town was left to fade away and its residents built a whole new town from scratch after the Ohio River Flood of 1937. They just built a whole new town to replace the old one. Years later, it also made me interested in the history of Valmeyer, Illinois – a small town south of St. Louis along the Mississippi River. That’s both “old” and “new” Valmeyer; I visited in 2007 (this and next three pictures).
Shawneetown has lots of old history to it. So does the new town. While taking my Illinois Route 1 road trip in Fall 2025, I took a side visit a few miles east on Illinois Route 13 to visit both of the Shawneetowns (and to briefly cross into Kentucky to see what the price of gas was there).
(For subsequent reference in this writing, “Shawneetown” will refer to the “Old Shawneetown,” and “New Shawneetown” will refer to the current one.)
Old Shawneetown provides a time capsule of sorts to what buildings looked like before 1937. It’s a shame that the flood happened when it did, because Shawneetown is among the oldest settlements in Illinois – claiming 1798 as a founding date (same year as Golconda, downstream). Illinois was first settled from the bottom up, as the northernmost counties weren’t largely settled by Whites until the mid-1830s. That made Shawneetown an early important community in Illinois history, and adding to that is its place on a stagecoach trail to Kaskaskia – Illinois’ first European-based settlement and a notable frontier site during the Revolutionary War. What would become the Kaskaskia–Shawneetown and Goshen Trail also led to the developments of cities such as Marion, Harrisburg and Carbondale.
The highlight of Shawneetown is its stately bank building, and you know it’s a bank building by the very large “BANK” lettering on top of the columns, and in the popular font at the time it was built (1840). It is the oldest surviving building in Illinois – the Bank of Illinois – that was used as a bank at one time; no more banking is done there, but it is maintained by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The bank closed in 1942. Indoor tours haven’t been offered for a while, however. Learn more about it here. Bank buildings of the time were important in the communities they served, so they were built stately and large, and this one has large front steps that lead to the first floor – and that might have served a purpose when the flood hit town.
There is another, smaller, bank building in town just a block north. This one isn’t as well preserved as the other one.
There isn’t much original architecture left from pre-flood days, but some survive. Smaller ranch-style houses built long ago fill some of the void, but they are very old and some are abandoned. A downtown saloon, Hogdaddy’s, was a popular biker destination until it closed, but its large painted logo remains on the side of its building. An old pre-flood Texaco gas station sits at one corner of the formerly busy downtown intersection where the preserved bank building is. Going east from the Texaco station and bank is where the town’s old bridge used to cross the Ohio. The only traces of the former right-of-way are in Kentucky, with a line of trees and an abandoned creek bridge.
Historical markers also are found near the formerly busy downtown intersection, about the town’s history, the buildings, and how Lewis and Clark came to town en route to their 1803 Missouri River and Louisiana Purchase expedition. South of the intersection, at a dead end next to the current bridge’s right-of-way, is a replica version of the John Marshall House (which looks strikingly authentic at first glance). Marshall – not to be confused with the former Supreme Court chief justice – was a past president of the Bank of Illinois. Historical signs are found throughout the campus telling more of the town’s story.
Commerce in Shawneetown is still extant with Layton’s Old Town Bar downtown and Grill and Foxy’s Tavern at town’s edge.
Months later, in January 2026, I attended a concert at an Irish pub in Galena, where the performer shared stories and music about riverboat towns. One of the stories involved Shawneetown. He asked the crowd to raise their hand if anyone had been to Shawneetown. I was the only one to raise my hand.
Shawneetown’s residents sought to build a new town after the large flood, and this led to the from-scratch development of New Shawneetown three miles west, and, importantly, above a bluff. It must have been like how suburban planners lay out new subdivisions, but in the eyes of late 1930s advances. The street grid is a typical one, but with some streets symmetrically curving and flowing into others. The courthouse became the central figure in the town’s layout, and is in the middle of a half-circular street. A large boulevard leads from the state highway – which cuts through the south edge of town – toward the middle of town.
Because the new town was a Great Depression-era creation, there isn’t really any “old” history. However, when the new town was being built, its Black residents largely stuck together in a section of town south of the highway. Segregation was still a thing in southern Illinois at the time, and the Dunbar School there served them. A two–sided stone monument near the entrance to this section of town from the highway tells an elaborate history of New Shawneetown’s first Black residents, and where they lived in town.
I had lunch at the Lincoln Street Grille and Pub in New Shawneetown. It offered a triple cheeseburger, which I had, and a side of battered cheese curds. Compared to a lot of the places I have eaten at on my travels, this meal would cost about $5-7 more elsewhere, and it was a great bang for my buck at around $15 (sans soda). The menu is expansive and also includes tacos.
There is an old plastic Coca-Cola sign along the highway with the very faded name of an old cafe on it. The building is gone, but the old sign remains; formerly Mitchell’s Cafe. The new town’s high school still stands on the east edge of town, now closed and part of the Gallatin County school system.
I mentioned that I briefly went into Kentucky. Smokin’ Joes (with a Sturgis address, but closer to Morgantown) is a gas station at a rural crossroads. Gas was $0.40 cheaper than where I stayed at in Harrisburg on this day, and about $0.70 cheaper than back home in Sterling. Don’t overlook these small gas stations, many of them have unique things in them that you may not have heard of. For me, this was a glass jug of Granny Smith apple cider, made from an Ohio company. I’ll admit, I don’t know much about cider, but this was the first I have heard of Granny Smith or even a blueberry variety. I bought a jug of Granny Smith to bring back home.
Shawneetown’s history is interesting – from pioneer days to Depression-era streetscaping. Worth a historical detour.
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Cody’s Road Trips 