Descriptions of places that no longer exist.
National City was incorporated in 1907 to meet the needs of the St. Louis National Stock Yards and the adjacent meat packing plants. East St. Louis agreed to provide some services to the area (like fire protection) and promised not to annex it. National City never had more than a token residential base. It
Sevastopol, a small settlement in a narrow coulee at the upstream end of Lake Pepin, began as a convenient place to build taverns for lumbermen in the area. The village was platted in 1857 by three men who didn't live there: John Elder, Hugh Adams, and GJ Richards. They probably snatched the name from a
Maybe a couple of these guys were named Jim, too Jimtown, located near Illinois City, was so named because a lot of guys named Jim lived there (or so the story goes). Most of the men, regardless of their name, worked at a nearby coal mine. It was a tough place full of
Drury's Landing, as sketeched by John McGreer in 1899 Isaiah Drury and Priscilla Reynolds moved the large Drury clan to Rock Island County in the early 1830s and got busy building homes and businesses. One of their sons, Stewart Reynolds Drury, established the first steamboat landing, which is why the spot became known
Bealieu House, Crow Wing State Park Crow Wing village was located along the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Crow Wing River. For centuries, the Ojibwe and Dakota Indians frequented the area for its abundant game. The village eventually grew into the primary commercial center for central Minnesota by the mid-1800s. Crow Wing began as a post for the fur trade.
Once upon a time, a village named Sinipi was here The flat path along the backwaters at today's Fenley State Recreation Area was originally one of the main streets for the town of Sinnippi (a word that apparently means "lead ore" in an unspecified Native American language). The town was settled in 1831 by
