Every so often I like to drive out to the old Koster farm. As time goes by it is getting harder to visualize the massive excavation that took place on this field.
The Original stone farmhouse at the Koster farm. Fifty years ago this house was still livable…
Just across the river from Kampsville is the small town of Eldred Illinois. It has pretty much mostly faded away… The Post Office building is being auctioned off.
A few years ago this was a thriving Bank.
As you go north of Kampsville along the river there are still a number of summer homes, but it seems like the ones that are left keep getting built higher and higher.
Just north of Kampsville is the small town of Pearl Illinois. Pearl used to be one of the most thriving small towns in the area. Before over harvesting killed off most of the river mussel population, Pearl was home to one of the largest mother-of-pearl button factories in the United States. When I first started coming to Kampsville in 1971 the river banks were still littered with large thick mussel shells with all of the buttons punched out. Now, most of what is left of the town looks like this.
One of my last stops on my way back up to Chicago was to stop in to the town of New Canton Illinois to visit the old high school we used to rent to use as dorm and lab space. This is where the three story brick building used to be….
