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All the United States Illinois Cairo Abandoned Town of Cairo, Illinois
AO Edited

Abandoned Town of Cairo, Illinois

A once-booming Mississippi River town with a history of racial violence is now eerie and mostly abandoned.

Cairo, Illinois

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Hoben
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Part of abandoned historic downtown Cairo, Illinois.   Jonathunder/GDFL 1.2
Part of abandoned historic downtown Cairo, Illinois.   Jonathunder/GDFL 1.2
Abandoned houses in Cairo, Illinois.   hickory hardscrabble/CC BY 2.0
Abandoned buildings in Cairo, Illinois.   MuZemike/CC BY-SA 3.0
Abandoned bowling alley in Cairo.   David Wilson/CC BY 2.0
First Presbyterian Church in 2024, there is a group raising money to restore the building   jen487 / Atlas Obscura User
  hyper99 / Atlas Obscura User
  hyper99 / Atlas Obscura User
  hyper99 / Atlas Obscura User
  hyper99 / Atlas Obscura User
  hyper99 / Atlas Obscura User
  casiemking / Atlas Obscura User
Lewis and Clark marker on the levy   KenJ / Atlas Obscura User
  KenJ / Atlas Obscura User
The Halliday family in Cairo, Illinois, 1903   ayunhalliday / Atlas Obscura User
The Halliday family in Cairo, Illinois, 1903   ayunhalliday / Atlas Obscura User
Downtown Cairo, Illinois.   hickory hardscrabble/CC BY 2.0
Aerial view of Cairo and confluence of Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.   ISS Crew Earth Observations/Public Domain
Abandoned Cairo businesses.   MuZemike/CC BY-SA 3.0
Downtown Cairo, Illinois.   Roland Klose/CC BY-ND 2.0
A deteriorating mansion.   Roland Klose/CC BY-ND 2.0
An overgrown house in Cairo.   Paul Sableman/CC BY 2.0
A hole in the wall of a Cairo building.   Joseph Novak/CC BY 2.0
Purgatory   shaw95 / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
  breaingram / Atlas Obscura User
An image of Cairo’s Commercial Avenue from the 1920s.   Public Domain
A motel advertisement from the mid-20th century.   Tichnor Brothers/Public Domain
Entrance bridge   argentina423 / Atlas Obscura User
  argentina423 / Atlas Obscura User
  argentina423 / Atlas Obscura User
Entering town from the north   leighbelle / Atlas Obscura User
A view of downtown Cairo taken from an open flood wall gate in 2015. Many of the commercial buildings are gone, replaced with green lawns.   rbt45769 / Atlas Obscura User
Different flood level crests are marked on the Cairo flood wall. The meeting place of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers has seen significant flooding over the years.   rbt45769 / Atlas Obscura User
This 1920 photograph shows the residence of Henry Halliday, one of five brothers who were prominent businessmen in Cairo in the last half of the 19th Century. Note the streetlight hanging in the tree branches to the left.   rbt45769 / Atlas Obscura User
Cairo Baptist Church 1915   dmccauley19 / Atlas Obscura User
It’s unconfirmed, but many believe these river tunnels were underground railroad sites   jen487 / Atlas Obscura User
  Courtesy of Lee Wikof
White building is the former bathhouse for the public swimming pool which closed overnight rather than integrating   jen487 / Atlas Obscura User
Civil War contraband camp site, now on the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom   jen487 / Atlas Obscura User
Ward Chapel AME in 2024, currently undergoing renovations thanks to being awarded grants   jen487 / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Situated at the flood-prone confluence of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River, at the southernmost point in Illinois, the port town of Cairo boomed along with the steamboat industry. When railroads crisscrossed the United States some of the steamboat traffic was subtracted, but Cairo was also an important station point along numerous train lines.

Today, however, a walk or drive through Cairo will find it eerily empty. The historic downtown area, once bustling, is now filled with crumbling brick and plywood-covered windows. Cairo has been decaying for decades, and currently, the business district is virtually totally boarded up, tumbling down, or razed. The deterioration has slowly made its way "uptown" (northwest) into residential neighborhoods as well. 

The town has mostly been abandoned because of its economic desperation, though its history of racial tension and periodic flooding certainly didn't help. The Civil War Reconstruction period brought a migration of formerly enslaved people to Cairo. Racial tensions were always high in the community, but as the shipping and ferrying industries declined, jobs grew more scarce and the racial unrest intensified. 

In the mid-1960s, the alleged police murder of a young Black soldier on leave in Cairo prompted protests and riots, and the National Guard was briefly activated. In response to perceived threats from the Black community, the white community formed a civilians' militia called the "White Hats." Predictably, the group was more focused on quelling Black protesters than on improving the community as a whole. 

The racial unrest and economic shortsightedness continued, and everything in Cairo organically declined over the decades to come. Some of Cairo's Black citizens left for more progressive pastures.  Many business owners—and a few rather large industries—were economically forced to board up shop.  The town's population, which had been over 15,000 at its peak in the 1920s, had dipped to 6,000 by the '80s. As of 2010 it was down to roughly 2,000. 

The local government has attempted to revive the city through now-racially integrated historic preservation initiatives, but most of these have failed. The only cultural institutions that have really survived are the few state-owned Victorian manors and the Cairo Public Library. Much of the rest of the town has been abandoned.

Related Tags

Abandoned Ghost Towns Black History Civil Rights Railroads Ruins

Know Before You Go

There is a Mississippi bridge to the northwest, and one coming up from the south, and there is an Ohio bridge coming in from the east. Use Route 51, and it'll take you right through town.

Community Contributors

Added By

Hoben

Edited By

Molly McBride Jacobson, zydeko, rbt45769, sibbing...

  • Molly McBride Jacobson
  • zydeko
  • rbt45769
  • sibbing
  • jeffreyscange
  • sewilli47
  • leighbelle
  • shaw95
  • jen487
  • ayunhalliday
  • casiemking
  • Kavya Ram Mohan
  • breaingram
  • jonathancarey
  • argentina423
  • hyper99
  • KenJ
  • dmccauley19

Published

August 22, 2016

Edit this listing

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Sources
  • Intimate knowledge, my family has lived in Cairo since the 1800's all locals pronunce Cairo as Care Row.
  • http://www.lib.niu.edu/1997/ii970228.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo,_Illinois
  • https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/eddwx/what_the_hell_happened_to_cairo_illinois/
  • http://abandonedonline.net/2012/02/13/a-trip-to-cairo-illinois/
  • Www.247wallst.com
Abandoned Town of Cairo, Illinois
Cairo, Illinois
United States
37.005329, -89.176461

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Photo of Cairo

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