A life lesson I learned in under half a day…..
Three hours down, I saw the turn off the interstate..
The sign read, “Cairo.”
A town between two rivers, a town between two bridges,
A town torn by time.
What I thought I was in for and what I actually experienced were at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Welcome to my Cairo, Illinois experience.
The day started out with sun trying to shimmer through the clouds, appropriate weather for what the day had in store.
Taking a left turn off the interstate, I was greeted by two different welcoming parties. One, a gas station that had been burned to the ground; the second, an old office building that lay in waste. Down the street sat a hotel with four lonely cars in front. From the start, this was a ghost town.
What I saw in the beginning would only progressively get worse. Driving into the town, I began seeing buildings everywhere in shambles. Everything seemed to be so lifeless. Hotels, gas stations, bars, just laying waste. Untouched by society, but wrecked by time.
Passing the last burnt down gas station, we passed this population district sign that said, “Future City.” This was the outskirts of Cairo that we just left. I finally made it to Cairo once I passed the “Welcome to Cairo” sign and the famous underpass, the only part of Cairo’s history that was really still kept up by the town. It glimmered with this idea of hope.
That idea proved to be fairly short-lived.
Driving into the main hub of the city, businesses were barred with metal walls. Rusted signs out front were naked, stripped of previous advertisements, for a long period of time. Two places were left to eat, Shemwell’s BBQ and Nu Diner. But both posted with signs stating “Closed at 7:30 pm, due to the threat of violence.” I wanted to get groceries instead? Well, Dollar General was the only option, or driving 30 miles into Kentucky. The idea of a grocery store was long gone.
Driving up on Martin Luther King Jr, I came across the old Southern Medical Center. Closed in 1989, the hospital had lost half of its building since. Looking at it in present day, it had a few doors open with no guards because that was the last thing Police had to pay attention to. There it sat, laid to waste and it almost felt as if the presence of 30+ years of the past were creeping on my shoulders.
Up the road, Bennet Elementary, which closed in 2010, had an eerie message which read, “Goodbye Bennet, we will miss you.” As I drove past it, I imagined children at a young age writing that message. Due to the fact that one more opportunity of a source of education was lost, due to the poverty that suffocated the economy in this town.
Finally, my buddy and I made our way to the Historic Downtown District of Cairo, only to see history laying in piles of bricks. Whatever buildings that hadn’t been torn down, were falling down at the seams. Bricks walls cracking, foundations buckling, it felt like the buildings that remained were crying out over what they once had been. These historic buildings once meant something to this city, but now they are looked at as a scar of the pain that this city has been through.
For the first time in my life, I finally come to understand what the term “ghost town” really meant.
So as your reading this all, you’re probably asking yourself what happened? My goal is to give you a short version of what killed this town, but also give you resources in case you want some more butter to the bread.
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So what happened to the heart of Illinois?
This town was torn by time.
In 1920 Cairo had a bustling 15,000+ residents. Now? The city sits at a mere 2,000.
Though the decline would be affected by economic issues occurring before the 1950’s, the biggest decline was from 1950–1970’s when racial tensions started playing a major role in the city. A 54% drop in population would occur due to riots, hangings, arson, and protests. The shining “Little Egypt” was turning into a place of mass destruction.
In 1978, the final punch to the city would be the opening of the Interstate 57 across the Mississippi River. This would allow people to bypass the city, which would cause businesses and hotels to eventual cripple due to the lack of customers which, in turn, explains why everyone and everything basically dispersed in time.
In the 1970’s, my granddaddy would lead a revival at Cairo Baptist, a prominent church within the city. Now all that exists of this church is a church bus seen in this picture. For all I know the church collapsed or was burned to the ground during one of the riots.
In the 1960’s-70’s my mother would frequent GEM theater with her family, the theater still exists but lays gutted with no future sign of change. Instead you can walk in it now and see the former shell of what it us to be.
These are just two examples of the decline Cairo faced, I could go through many more but instead I’ll give you an opportunity to learn.
Remember when you were a kid, and you used to read about the effects of racism across America? If you want to see what that is like first hand, I encourage you to go and experience Cairo for yourself. I love history and have studied the first hand affects of racism at a high school and college level before. Until I went to this town, I never really understood how detrimental it has become in our country.
In this trip I was reminded about how travel will teach you how people have adapted to the effects of time, or how they have failed to. Travel will tell a story, then proceed to give you one to tell. Cairo is just one of the thousands of examples.
I encourage you, if you’re ever in the area, to drive through and check it out. I hope you learned something from this blog.
Until then stay adventurous,
J. Nicholas
