Watching this video and surprised that you pronounced Cairo correctly and not like the city in Egypt. There is another town close to Cairo that is the kitty litter capitol of America, my ex brother in law was sent there to work on an army corp of engineers project back in the mid 90’s and we visited him there a few times
@@Rick6767rick All of Southern Illinois is referred to as "Little Egypt" and there are several towns that carry the spelling of areas in Egypt, but many aren't pronounced the same way. I couldn't tell you why they are pronounced different, I suspect that many when many of the towns were named, people had read about the places in Egypt, but had never heard them pronounced! You can tell when someone isn't from Southern Illinois when they pronounce the towns the way they are pronounced in Egypt!!
My mother was born here in 1936. I remember visiting in the 60s. It was called "Little Egypt." We would stay at my grandmother's sister's house, eating fried catfish sandwiches with homemade hotsauce on white bread. There'd be sweetened sun tea and lemonade. It wouldn't be very cold (we only got one ice cube each) but it was cool and wet. Being in Cairo in the summer was unlike anything I've ever felt, before or since. Crazy Uncle Boots used to say they lived in the devil's kitchen. I remember impoverished streets and homes that had once seen better days long before I knew the right words and the reasons why. I remember trying to sleep in a hot stuffy room, praying for a breeze to lift old, yellow lace curtains hanging in the open window. To this day, I don't know if I fell asleep or simply passed out due to the heat. I remember hearing my parents talking with great aunts and uncles mixed together with the incessant drone of cicadas while they sat out on the front porch. I remember my Aunties Lou and Erlister saying how bad things had gotten there for 'the colored folk' and that they were looking to leave. I remember them talking about MLK. We had family in Chicago. They eventually moved there but they never were able to convince Uncle Boots to leave. They used to whisper he wasn't right in the head after the war. I didn't understand then what that meant. I liked Uncle Boots. He used to sneak me hard candy. I didn't know it then but that would be the last time I would ever see him. It would also be one of the last times I would visit Cairo. I reckon that Cairo has been dying for perhaps longer than it was ever alive. I would also speculate that it will still be dying long after we're gone. Watching this video was bittersweet. So many memories . . .
It’s been wonderful sharing in your memories. So much detail that I can just about see it through your words. If you haven’t already, it might be nice for your family if you captured these kind of memories for them in a journal. Thanks.
I’m actually the Ups driver in Cairo. I have been for a few years now. You know I was almost talked out of taking the route. I’m glad I stayed. My customers are wonderful. A misunderstood area with a dense history!
So you always feel safe there? Not to judge a book by its cover but all the RUclips videos I'm kinda scared, and I live over in St. Clair County, a couple hours from Cairo. I've seen videos RUclips where people are just driving around exploring and they're being followed.
@@joanna7350 Probably less likely to happen to a UPS driver. It's very apparent what they're in the city to do, everyone wants their packages. An unknown vehicle on the other hand would be much more likely to be followed.
“I don’t know what people do for food and groceries” you had already answered your own question: Dollar General. Targeting the deepest parts of rural America is how that company has expanded to over 13,000 locations. They find dying towns whose last grocery store closed years ago, open shop, and offer reasonably priced food, healthy-beauty aids, and home goods. From ketchup to dental floss to cat food to bathroom towels, they really are a modern day general store. Each store provides about 12-ish jobs to the town as well. I worked at a DG for about 2.5 years.
@UCc463TowgsuTUjA7M5tPdAw Yup, Dollar General is fantastic for people with similar remote living situations. Glad to hear it’s made your life easier. Most of us in the cities and suburbs take for granted being able to get nearly everything we need within at most a 20 minute drive, including retailers and hospitals. It’s something I try to be grateful for and mindful of.
The son of Dollar General lives I Nashville Tennessee where his father founded Dollar General. He gives millions of dollars to charity especially The Room in The Inn in Downtown Nashville that Ministers to the homeless community there. So Dollar General is a good company
That’s all well and good if you ignore the instances where the local corner store is still around when DG comes to town and they still decide to set up shop and force them out.
On many a night, my Navy buddy from Cairo, Russell Mertz, told me all about his hometown as we sweated through another night in the Philippines. Russell was a great storyteller. The Gem Theater...Russell worked there in his younger years. Loved seeing this. We stayed in touch for 50 years. Finally got to see him just before he passed. So glad we got to see each other one last time.
I left Cairo in 1967, when I graduated high school. Cairo is pronounced (CARE ROW) not (KAY ROW). What is not known to the casual traveler is that the entire town is riddled with subterranean caverns. Huge sinkholes have appeared in the main streets making basements and new construction unthinkable. Waters from the Mississippi River on the west and the Ohio River on the east have destabilized the last 3 miles of southern Illinois. We knew this in 1967. Growth stopped in 1920 with the population at 15K. The area flooded in 1937 and again in 2011. The Civil War was the pinnacle of history for Cairo. Farm lands in southern Illinois are fertile from the flooding of the two rivers. Don't mourn for Cairo, Cairo died in the 1870's.
its actually pronounced Kai row. Like the city in Egypt. This area of the world is notorious for butchering other languages. Every french named street in st louis is mispronounced.
@@michaelf7093 ok. I remember visiting an old fort in a park right where the Mississippi and the Ohio river meet. There was also a casino boat on the river and a nuclear power plant across the way in Kentucky
As someone who is fascinated by the USA, more specifically the rural part of the country, I love seeing this type of stuff. It's both sad and fascinating, I would love to travel through all these small towns, witness it myself and talk to the locals and hear their stories.
My daughter was in college in Chicago and we drove from Texas to bring her home due to Covid. We LITERALLY almost ran at of gas in Cairo. We were in a panic because we couldn’t find an operating gas station. Never let it get below 50 miles to empty any longer. The GPS sent us to a little convenience store and the guy working said they hadn’t sold gas in 20 years. 😱
@@JoeandNicsRoadTrip Saw that. Gotta wonder where the dealer fills up the Fords for the test drives. I think we got back on the interstate and had to back-track some miles to a truck stop.
@@unclesloppy5388 Wow, in most cars you would be stopping every 150 miles. my Silverado will go 400 miles between fill ups. But I carry a spare can of gas. I was born and raised in Wayne Co. which is 133 miles north. I live in Florida but I go back every spring to visit my family. I usually go through Evansville, but i might take that route through Carerow this spring.
Not for nothing but how do you let your gas get to the point of almost running out in the first place? I've never driven a car down that low in my life. That's the type of stuff you see in horror movies. If you're traveling and it gets anywhere below half tank, FILL IT UP.
Such a great way to preserve American history and educate people the world over. Really enjoy your matter of fact narration and reaction to the things you see. Most of your viewers it seems would never in a million years visit a place like this. Because you take us with you and your camera in tow, the legacy of place like Cairo leaps right off the screen and into our awareness unlike any book or magazine could ever do. Thanks for not using any production music here. It's perfect just the way it is. I'll bet every building/house you've shown us has many amazing stories to tell. If only those walls and yards could talk. Thanks again for doing what you do so well.
Cairo was where Grant's army assembled in preparation for his critically important Vicksburg Campaign. My great-grandfather's 8th Illinois was among the many Union regiments that encamped there.
My Great Great Uncle was General John M. Schofield. Thank God for the men of Illinois- from what I have read things could have easily gone the other way. Your Great Grandfather was a brave man, thank you for sharing your story.
I'm a trucker and 2 years ago we loaded big oversize wind mill tube sections in Cairo off of barges. They came from overseas to New Orleans, then on barges up the river to Cairo, then used big cranes to load onto our trucks and we took them to the windmill sites in Missouri.
Every time we drive through this town I'm filled with sadness at its decay. But also each time my husband and I discuss how easy it would be to film a post-apocalyptic movie here. If you avoid the few homes that are kept up, one could imagine the voiceover for the trailer: "In a world ravaged by (insert tragedy here), towns lie in decaying ruins. But one man..." etc.
In a world ravaged by Wokeness... If not for the fact that this is in anti-America IL, this is the perfect town for 150 Patriot families to buy up and turn into a crime-free piece of Americana. Only drawback is the flooding. It's not that far to Cape Girardeau for gas and groceries, and they built an awesome bridge across the Miss in 2003 to get you there.
Yes, me too, though I never lived or been in those towns. Something must be nostalgic about knowing that some life used to be somewhere with real people living there and making history albeit very limited in many cases. Humans are fascinating in their pursuit of happiness. They venture and dare to take risk, sometimes at the expense of leaving family and roots. Some settle down so far and never turn back. Some reunite after a very long time and yet some others disappear forever. I see those abandoned little towns as future cultural sites where people could stop by while traveling filling gas or staying the night over in a little motel. They don’t have to be beaten down or trashed out. Local governments could encourage investors like little convenient stores with gas pumps or small hotels and grocery stores to move in in exchange of land grants and tax cuts. Some of those towns would also make great barns for raising animals and farming especially those close to rivers and water streams. I know America could do better because many who are land deprived like Europeans are more appreciative of vacant land, let alone empty towns.
Ah Cairo my nemesis. I'm a truck driver and I'll do anything to avoid that route. Sometimes I can't. The bridge is narrow as heck, 82 is a narrow two lane highway with no margin for error or you end up in a ditch. The small winding streets are a maze but I have always been so fascinated by the almost abandoned town. I roll through with my camera and always try to get pictures. Abandoned towns are beautiful in a way. After rolling through I Googled the town and yes a torrid history. Always end up going this way when I'm going to that part of Missouri.
We use to take that bridge on family trips, going down to Georgia to see my grandparents. It was scary enough in a car, later, we would use that bridge, only in a motor home with our mirror just an inch or two from a semi mirror, coming the other way. One time, a little kid came on the CB radio, “mama can’t do it daddy.” The mom was driving behind in the family car, the dad who was ahead on the other side, in a camper, she was terrified of driving across that narrow bridge. A semi driver stuck behind the back up, parked his rig and volunteered to drive the car all in it, to the other side. I suppose he got a ride back.
@jl davis yes!!! My first time down through Cairo my co driver was driving. I sat in the passenger seat puckered. I told him I'll never do that. Little did I know I would later after getting my CDL. ugh
I lived in Cairo until recently. You missed the one nice section of town west of Washington between roughly 25th and 35th sts. Cairo looks pretty much like any other nice small town back in there. They are also supposed to start work on the new Port Of Cairo anyday now. Several companies have already made heavy investments into it so this will happen. They will need a thousand workers for construction alone. This is the biggest thing to happen in Cairo in nearly 100 years. On to some of the negatives. Most of the population loss in the most recent census was due to the demolition of two large derelict projects. Very few were able to find new housing in Cairo so most left. Also local flooding, esp in 2011 drove many from Cairo after it was evacuated. The local electric provider charges 6-7 times the normal rate which is a large part of why bigger houses in particular are vacant. Even 15 years ago there were still many businesses open along the main drag. The town's last grocery store left 6-7 years ago. The areas with biggest employers are in Cape Girardeau MO and Paducah KY, most do their shopping there as well.
Not unless you can move illinois away from the neighboring states. I grew up in illinois across from st louis, I moved to Missouri too. Same reason every person and business moves to Missouri or Kentucky does... illinois is a failed state.
Well if this project goes I'm sure some workers will by a property and companies will buy any livable property to rent out . things will escalate fast. Be a boost for everyone. Maybe a store or 2 will open.
I currently live in the part of Illinois across from St. Louis. I don’t think Illinois needs to be moved away from the neighboring states to survive. It needs separated from Chicago in order to survive. The only thing that makes Illinois different from the neighboring states is that it’s run by the failed city of Chicago. The part of Illinois that I live in is more like Missouri than like Chicago. Cairo is more like Kentucky and Missouri than like Chicago.
My daughter was one of the last children born at the Cairo hospital in 85. It was already partly demolished but was the only place our doctor had privileges, she was a little on the outside of mainstream but a good doctor. I haven't been there in several years but tried to buy a house for my wife's niece a few years back. There were many one time beautiful homes still around and some were being given away. The town still had the remains of many fine brick two and three story buildings. You could still get an idea of what it had been. I've always found it sad, once it's gone it ain't coming back, they don't build that way anymore. 😢
This is the first I heard of Cairo. My grandmother was born here in 1910. She never returned. I always wanted to know why her fanily left and NEVER returned. So sad. You have saved me a visit.
It will be back if America and our current state fall considering the location. With tbe republic barely hanging ok and a divide between many states and the federal government you can bet your inflated dollars that survivors will flock to vacant towns like Cairo
I have two experiences with Cairo: First was getting a ticket from a state cop as I exited back onto I-57 in 2001. It was literally only for 3 miles over the speed limit as I was accelerating from the exit to meet the speed on the interstate. Second was in 2002 trying to find a gas station at 4am. I pulled into a station that was fully lit at about 11:00pm, but the pumps weren't working and the store was locked. I rolled out of there when a car parked and blocked the exit out of the station. I just hopped the grassy curb and booked it out of there.
Yeah that was me in the driveway, so your the guy that hauled a## outta there, I was gonna try and tell where you could get gas that place closes at 10
I also got a court appointed ticket while driving through an intentional speed trap. Required me having to travel back for my court. There was a single court room with soo many people they couldn't fit, only one local resident of the over 300 people there they let him go first and while speeding with no insurance he got off free while the rest of us got fines. 😅
As a truck driver I've passed by the town many times, and usually it's always flooded, I can see why nobody wants to live there. A town that's extremely prone to flooding by the river there is not a good idea
Very good point. I live up higher in elevation in my neighborhood. We had 10 inches of rain in 24 hours and our house was fine. Move to where the jobs are booming Move to where houses are affordable Move to where it is safe to live Buy a house at a nice, safe elevation
I was thinking when I clicked, that the flooding would have been why the town is abandoned. I can imagine so many businesses that would work well in a place like that--but not if it's a flood risk.
@Catania Momma Italia Most people in the mid-west don't think about flooding as a common occurrence, like those on the coasts do. In places like Louisiana they build on stilts, but here the problem is losing roads and bridges as well. When these areas flood, people get stranded for days, livestock is lost, pets are abandoned, and homes are destroyed. When the floods happen, debris washes down the river and could easily take out a house--even if it was on stilts.
One of the weirdest coincidences about Cairo is that when the last ice age ended, the glaciers' southernmost advance reached as far as Cairo's location, and the last time the sea inundated North America, its northernmost advance was more or less to Cairo's location. 🧐
Fantastic! In 5th grade at Stark Elementary, Lovers Lane, Steubenville, Ohio, I had Mrs. HUBER for Geography Class in 1968! It was there that I did the ICE AGE Map for North America, covering continental U.S.A.! CAIRO must have been on the geography book's Map!
@@BE74297 Perhaps both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans way back then were really One Ocean, or semi-One: it was much later that the 2 seas SPLIT from each other into two entirely separate body-of-water identities? My speculation only.
This is a beautiful place! I live in PA, For the past 2 years I have lived on 1,500.00/mo that's 18,000.00/yr. This is my choice, I'm 56 and have worked hard all my life, raised 3 boys myself. I saved enough that I could retire early. Now I have time to enjoy my grandchildren. I do not consider myself poor, I have a 1,750 sq ft home, I have 1/4 acre, garden, chickens, rabbits a dog and a cat. It's all about living within your means and being grateful for what you have and knowing that the rat race won't make you happy.
I was introduced to Cairo by the author/humorist, Mark Twain. He knew the city well, having spent his younger years on a steamboat plying the Mississippi River. The city is mentioned in both Huckelberry Finn and Tom Sawyer novels.
The final nail in the coffin was the Interstate bypassing the town in the late 1970's. I traveled through there many times earlier and Cairo was still the only bridge available so you had to go through town. Every one of those closed businesses used to be packed with locals and travelers. I believe I-57 opened around about 1977 and soon after, the first businesses started pulling out.
There's a housing crisis. If unclaimed houses are remotely intact/ usable, this would be an opportunity for the bold and the desperate, were it not for househoarding, bulldozing banks. Just like Gary Indiana. A city fullvof empty houses, hoarded and bulldozed by the banks that seized them.
@@jamesbeason9256 No, it's I-57. When I used to travel through in the late 70s, early 80s,, the interstate was still being built. The interstate stopped at Hwy 51 (which is the main street through town) so then you could cross the skinny steel bridge over the Mississippi. Once they built the interstate bridge, unless you needed gas or food, you only noticed Cairo off in the distance as you passed it by.
When I was a kid in the 60's in West Tennesse we would pass through Cairo going to visit my grandparents in Central Illinois. The interstate was the final blow to Cairo taking revenue away from the city. . I drove through there a year or so ago to see for myself. It's sad to see a historic city crumble.
We used to take that way to Trimble, TN to the in laws. I liked going over the bridge into KY and stopping in Wickliffe for cheap cigarettes. Now we take 24 to Paducah for gas then down to Trimble.
This was so interesting to me. Thank you for making this video. My father was born in Cairo and lived there where he was a little boy, before his family moved up the river to Alton, IL, just north of St. Louis. He'd be 95 now if he were still alive and would be, I'm sure, astonished to see its current condition. We didn't have any family living in the area but we did visit when I was a kid, so early 70s-ish. It was not in such bad shape then. How sad to see what's become of it.
Anyone that every read "Huckleberry Finn" knows about Cairo. The river traffic is not near as active as it was 20 years ago. Back in the 70's and 80's most small towns lost their hospitals due to the operational expense. You have several large cities close to Cairo and that is probably the reason they lost the grocery store.
Cairo also features in Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Southern Illinois is a beautiful place, ancient and stunning. Maybe in our lifetimes we'll visit Cairo for purpose other than watching the homes decay.
Most of the "close" hospitals are a minimum of 30 miles away from Cairo! Try that trip when you're having a heart attack, or have a serious illness and in need of medical support!!!
It's amazing how many beautiful, well-kept houses there are! Too bad you didn't stop to talk to that man coming out of his house - I'm sure he would have been able to provide a lot of history about the town.
I’m not Americanbut stayed (work) in the us for almost 6yrs and I love small town vibe, so much so that when we travel we usually take the route of small towns (instead of expressway) eighteenth or or from (to change the scenery). It’s slower than expways but I like driving through them, stopping even. So peaceful, sure it can be boring maybe at times, but I like it. Kind of place where everybody knows everybody. And i feel sad to see some of them being abandoned
I do that a lot too, take the U.S. highways, preferably 2-lane when I can, or even the smaller state highways sometimes. People say "there's nothing out here" but to me, driving past subdivisions, shopping centers and convenience stores makes for "nothing".
@@vinniebarusa yup, it’s just convenient. So when we have time, I don’t mind a bit longer trip. As a foreigner , we only see these before in movies! That was quite an experience for us, esp the first few ones
So glad that you covered Cairo, IL. Cairo was a major memorable location for me, starting as an infant (first passing thru Cairo in 1954) and throughout my pre-teen childhood years. We lived in Chicago, but since my mother's side was all in Louisiana, we would take at least 2 trips per year between Chicago to just north of New Orleans, either by train or by driving in car. The first 6 or so years were before I-57 was even built, and if we drove we'd take old Hwy 51 all the way, passing right thru Cairo. The train trips had a huge memorable part, as that was back when the Illinois Central 'Panama Limited' (sleeper car train) and the Illinois Central 'City of New Orleans' train (of the infamous Arlo Guthrie song) were in existence. The memorable highlight at Cairo was my parents telling me and my sister "to be ready to see the back & front of the train we were on", as there was a long 90° curve in the railroad tracks at Cairo and as the train was in that curve, we could look out the train window and see nearly the entire front and back halves of the train we were on, while in that long 90° curve. I still recall on an early trip we were taking by car, back in the late 1950's, due to horrendous weather we had to stop overnight and stayed at a motel on Hwy 51 in Cairo, which I have no doubt was the same (long closed) Belvedere Motel you filmed at the 21:09 mark. It's hard to believe that was approx 65 years ago.
I have been through Cairo a good many times on my way to Paducah, Ky, by way of Wickliffe. Going through Cairo, at night, on my Harley was an experience. Not a particularly good one, but I lived to tell about it! Cairo, like many of these Mississippi Delta towns are just sad. Once grand little cities, now just remnants of what they were, gone all to staves.
@@EvLDJGetRite I went through there at night in July and other than the one Bronco they couldn't fit in the dealer a cop was the only other car I saw. It wasn't really creepy but I wasn't on a 4 or 500 lb bike. I was in a 2 too car.
@@codykp. No sir. I'm steel mill trash. You're right about Paducah being a big towboat town, though. I used to date a real sweet gal up there, so that was the draw for me. I found it to be a real nice town.
I grew up in southern Illinois and always thought of it as where the midwest meets the south. You should have talked to that guy coming out of his house- he probably would have been happy to have someone to talk to. Many such small towns in the midwest now are full of retired people- the younger folk have moved on.
Illinoise is very long north to south I don't know how many miles but the northern border is even with southern Massachusetts and Cairo is even with Norfolk, VA. Quite a span!
My family was a big road-tripping family and one of my dad's tales he always told about going through Cairo way back when. He thought it was the coolest that he ordered catfish from some joint and having the choice of either catfish from the Ohio River or the Mississippi.
WHOA, they've cleaned up the state park there a LOT since I went through in Spring of 21! That place was an abandoned wreck, totally overgrown and clearly neglected for years. nice to see it getting some much-needed love, it's a great spot and a fascinating bit of American history.
My entire family is from southern Illinois. I spent allot time in all those southern towns like Benton, Marion, Golcanda, Cairo and the like. Seeing your video was definitely a path to the past. Lots of great memories. Thanks for sharing.
I'm born and raised Texan but, my yankee cousins are all southern Illinois...Albion and Mt. Carmel. We did a lot of swimming, fishing, and skippin' stones in the Wabash River which was a short walk from the house. I remember the walk to the river as humid, with corn fields and oil wells all around. Good times. My wife and I drove through Cairo just a few months ago, beginning of summer, and noticed how desolate it seemed.
Makes me think of a quote from “Wind, Sand and Stars” by Antoine St. Exupery (1939): “One thing that I had loved in Paraguay was the ironic grass that showed the tip of its nose between the pavements of the capital, that slipped in on behalf of the invisible but ever-present virgin forest to see if man still held the town, if the hour had not come to send all those stones tumbling.”
I used to go there in the early to mid 80’s on school trips to Fort Defiance. It was still a decent town then but drugs and crime got really bad. Lots of people started leaving. The town was almost abandoned completely during the floods in 2011. Sink holes were popping up all over town making it very dangerous. The Main Street you were on used to have a trolley car in the early years. There was a lot of big beautiful homes there when I was a kid but almost all of them are gone now. Very sad… very sad!
It seems so strange to me that a town built on a major river delta, right on the edge of a bunch of other states, would even be able to fail in the first place. There had to have been some real mismanagement here.
1980 worked on the river from Pittsburgh flipping through the phone and I seen these stories and it’s heartbroken I remember being on the barges up and down the river is beautiful I remember Cairo vividly that bridge picking up and dropping off barges sad to see the declineIn the story
My dad is from Paducah Kentucky worked on the river I joined them when I was 18 sad to see the decline of America what was worse you were on your own no help from Reagan The point is my dad had to leave Paducah and made it in Pittsburgh back in 1930 but today where do you go start a life find a job buy a house like my daddy did PittsburghThank God for Pittsburgh rolling on the river what’s a fabulous time
I was born and raised in Mississippi, moved North for work in the sixties, lived there until retirement. I made two trips each year, back to see my parents, down interstate 57. I drove through Cario, then across the Ohio. This happened over 35 years. I always stopped in Cario, for gas. As the years went by, I saw the decline of a beautiful town. I retired in 2010, folks are gone, no more trips. It was sad to witness the death of a once important place.
I like how this channel brings back memories of people who once lived in a little town. Especially people who never have gone back since they left when they were young. Thank you for making all good videos.
I spent a good 6 years working on both the the Illinois section of the Ohio and the Mississippi River up to Alton conducting fish population surveys. I spent many a time in Cairo along with several similar small towns like E-Town, Olmstead, and old Shawneetown. Sure, one might say that they’re all close to ghost towns nowadays but it’s fascinating to think that this area used to be the bustling heart of Illinois at one point. I like to still hope that places like these either grow back up in population or at least be remembered for their importance in U.S. history.
im a lifelong chicagoan that recently bought a home in southern illinois and as much as I love Cairo, living there (even if its part time) was too much for me - so i chose Metropolis
Thanks for this! I did a similar tour of Centralia, PA. It’s even more ghost, only 3 or 4 occupied houses because the entire town was condemned so the holdouts are just people refusing to leave. The one thing I would have liked to see here would be you going into one of the few open establishments, buying something and talking to the remaining residents.
Dicken"s opinion of the US was very unfavorable even after two trips to the US. American audiences responded negatively to his novel "Martin Chizzlewit" which was partly inspired by what he observed in Cairo. He considered the city to be a island of terror and lacking in civilized morals. It was the inspiration for "Eden" in the novel.
River towns were known for criminal activities. Transient river crews would gamble, drink employ women prostitutes and leave. Rough life for less than wealthy.
I live right along the Ohio River at Louisville Kentucky and I walk my dog along the river every morning. I love to watch the barges moving up and down the river. Thanks for the nice view of the confluence. I've never seen it before.
We drove the back streets of the town in April. Based on the size of the houses, school, commercial buildings clearly it was a affluent town. It is an odd set-up. Half of the buildings/ houses are well-kept and half are empty. Standing at the rivers confluence is an awesome sight.
A few years ago, I was just outside Cairo when I saw a few cars stopped . A White woman was along the interstate holding a young Black guy. I stopped to see what was going on and the victim said he had been shot in the back over a drug deal. Nobody seemed to know what to do, so I took over first aid and wrote down what he said. A trooper pulled up, but he refused to talk to him. I gave the statement to the trooper. A couple of men were just watching. I asked them what they saw and they both identified themselved as police officers for Cairo. Good thing I'm a retired officer.
You are so right. I once lived in a relatively prosperous block in Cairo while a couple of blocks over was nothing but collapsing abandoned houses. Cairo once had close to 20,000 people and was the hub of the region. The confluence of the rivers is an amazing and beautiful sight. I think it needs to be some sort of national park based on its importance and key role it played in westward expansion. Nearly everybody moving west passed by and/or stopped in Cairo.
Before I retired from truck driving, I detoured off of the main route to tour Cairo. It was very late at night and the whole experience was sobering to say the least. I saw absolutely no people or moving cars, trucks or trains. There is so little lighting and useable structures I doubted I was in a town at all. I certainly expected a small town but what I observed was little more than nothing.
When I was eight years old, my family was driving back from Mexico to Chicago. When hit a bit of bad weather driving over the I-57 bridge there off Cairo. My dad pulled under an overpass to wait out the storm. When it passed we continued into Cairo for gas to find the town almost leveled by a tornado. This breakout of storms is known as, The Marion, Illinois tornado outbreak. We were lucky to live through it. It's a shame to see the town in shambles like that. Another historic landmark lost to time. Thanks for sharing.
The Marion IL tornado was 50 miles away from Cairo, not even close to the town of Cairo. It started touching down around Carterville, IL and followed along parallel to Route 13 as it made it's way to Marion. I have a friend who was killed in the Marion tornado. Again, Cairo was untouched. There was no outbreak of tornadoes, it was one storm cell. Cairo has just been falling down and into disrepair for years, which is really sad. The town is getting ready to have a new grocery store after quite a few years without one; a project several citizens of Cairo have been working on for a while, and that is being made possible with help from a program from the local community college. Construction is set to start on the store in the coming months.
@@thesquigglespin What year were you 8 y/o? There is no overpass to pull under when you get off the bridge at Cairo and Cairo has never been hit by a tornado.
From what I understand of Cairo, and many other small towns down in the "Lincoln's Chin" region, they are kept alive in large part due to the slew of Corrections facilities nearby. As a former *tourist?* of said facilities in my more youthful spirited years, a lot of the Corrections Officers down there would talk a lot about how their quality of life was so much better than their neighbors due to these jobs. I was always confounded by how much vitriol and contempt they held for the prisoners because they were mostly from Chicago. Most people you meet in those facilities are people who committed some "victimless" crime like driving with no license repeatedly or were caught with some weed, especially in the larger minimum or medium security institutions. They hated us so much and yet our transgressions were the infusion of income that stretched the deaths of these towns into decades instead of years. While down there I picked up on the fact that a majority of the black COs lived in Cairo. Not sure if it's true but I was told that it was one of the first free cities that runaway slaves would encounter on their journey north and as a result a lot of them would stay, settle and rebuild their lives there. It is alarming to learn just how many people are incarcerated down there in towns like Tamms (my old address at 8500 Supermax Rd), Pinckneyville (also an old address of mine), Vienna, Shawnee, etc. One thing I'll never forget is the Shawnee National Forest butting up to a lot of these institutions and the fresh air (if I ever got any)and wildlife that would creep right up to the edge of the prisons. I've hiked and camped out quite a bit down there later in life as a free man and always wanted to visit Cairo but was always afraid to bump into someone who genuinely wronged me as an employee of those institutions and end up right back down there against my will.
In part, the correctional system functions as a way supply state funds to rural areas. Assuming the industrial base has decamped, if you don't have a tourist attraction, a university, or a regional medical facility, you need a correctional facility to support a town.
Its because theyre "city folk" or, funnily enough, also called "tourists". A lot of small towns dont like city folk and I would be lying if I said I dont share some of that contempt.
@@ptrd4111 "They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool" is a line from a John Lennon tune. I'm presenting it here in order to ask you: How much would jobs have to pay an hour for locals to overcome their xenophobia and welcome outside job opportunities and people?
Oh yeah, I'm sure you were really wronged by employees at a supermax, oh for sure. I wonder what 'victimless crime' you committed to wind up in a closed super max?
My wife grew up there in the 60's and remembers the racial tension and the riots. We have visited Cairo twice since her last residence there, the latest being 2020. It's sad to see a town decay like this.
Theres still racial tension except it's just young blacks that hate everyone. A friend of mine family owned a bbq restaurant in cairo. Some young cairo thugs were caught stealing there so he kicked them out. They came back and burned his restaurant to th ground. Things like this happen all th time there. I dont recommend going
@@kevinhowe3280 I'm not a Hebrew and I don't follow their ideology or the Bible, the Truth is,Whitefolks started the racial tensions in that town and in many other towns across the USA.🤔
I have passed over those bridges many many times back and forth from Missouri to Kentucky! The 2024 eclipse will cross over over this town. Love the old 1800 homes! Its so empty now... but you can just see the potential and what used to be!
My family and I drove through Cairo this summer on our way to Chattanooga. It was jaw-dropping to see every single business in town was boarded up with the exception of the liquor store and smoke shop. Ohio River as you would drive down the street there would be a really big nice house fresh paint and then the house next to it the roof would be collapsed in on. Shocking...
The drone shot starting at 1:55 of the video is FANTASTIC !. I love the spot where the land juts out and forms a little peninsula between the two rivers. YOU stood at the end of that piece of land where I pictured myself standing. I am so jealous....!! At 11:35 the house covered in ivy reminded me of Cousin Itt from the Addams Family !......I bet the house at 22:10 started rotting with a leaky roof and now it is about to cave in on itself. If a heavy pigeon lands on the roof, it is over !........... To change the subject just a bit, your inspection sticker expired at the end of September. I hope you got your inspection completed........I am a retired car repair guy, I can't help myself !!.....THANK YOU, for another great video.
Great Video... People didn't believe me when I told them about this town. The Federal Government wanted to flood the town. The only thing that stopped it was the valuable farm land that's next to it. It truly is the lowest point in Illinois in elevation and poverty. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.
I visited Cairo in late 2020 and it looked something like Kosovo after the bombings, I was completely shocked. Most people know the American heartland's been murdered by 50+ years of steady deindustrialization and outsourcing, but it's only when you actually go see it can the full scope of the human tragedy begin to be understood.
If you really want to know what happened to Cairo, ask the older people who are still there. Ask about what happened in the '60's and after. It's like all the big cities, only it was once a beautiful little town.😔
@@jimhayden5798 I wrote a book about what happened to my quiet little suburb in Northern Calfirona in the 60s. About the same thing. MLK's "non-violent" demonstrations carried a violent wake behind it.
@@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244 FOH. It wasn't civil rights movement, it was the capitalists deciding to send american jobs and factories overseas to line their pockets. It couldn't be any clearer than that.
@John Smith Great point! When we stopped manufacturing things our towns went downhill. Look at the beautiful architecture in dying towns like Sterling, Illinois. Very sad.
I know quite a few families that migrated from Cairo to Freeport, IL. The majority of the families never went back. The conversations about Cairo were quite interesting and some very disturbing. It seems like all small town IL cities have similarities .....sad and dark! Great video.
Although its empty and desolate, I can’t help but notice how neat it seems to be. Most lawn areas are mowed, common areas have lights, and I don’t see a lot of garbage or graffiti in random areas. Seems different from other dying towns…
I drove through in July for the first time and was blown away by all the crumbling and abandoned buildings, but also the cool old historic buildings. Thanks for the in-depth tour, and I hope Cairo can make a recovery.
Once wealthy river and railroad towns have given way to interstate trucking and the Chinese crap they hall .sadly there is no coming back for Cairo and many towns like it.
In 2020 we went through Cairo, and it was a sad, deserted little town. We thought how sad it was to see such a town that died with few cars and people in the streets. This year, 2022, there were more new stores were opened and more people walking and driving around. This town does seem to be coming back with people investing in it.
this is yet another town lost to the American roadway. with the Lincoln Highway being routed and gradually built, starting in 1913, river towns that weren’t at the mouth began to die at rapid rates. confluence towns have been thus, ‘abridged,’ from American importance. so unimportant they’ve disappeared almost entirely. thank you for documenting and historicizing this forgotten town!
Crazy coincidence that this video just popped up in my recommended (or probably not coincidence at all, but Google spying on me). I'm a trucker and just 3 days ago I passed through here, coming from Wickliffe KY, on my way back to the Chicago area. First time ever driving through here, I remember thinking it was a somewhat charming little town but very empty. I was impressed with the nice architecture of that St Patrick's Church (the same one you passed by). Didn't see much of the residential area of the town though, had no idea it was actually this decayed and on the verge of becoming a ghost town. From the looks of it it was certainly booming a hundred years ago, looks like a bunch of Victorian era houses that have seen better days.
It's funny you said that because for the first time I passed through Cairo on Monday August 29th 2022. Wow. I'm just learning about Cairo from this video too. I live in Decatur illinois (another dead-end town🙄but I never heard of Cairo.
@@kathyyoung1774 Paranoid? about what? You are aware that your phone and Google know where you're at and use your location to determine what things pop up on your phone, right? It's for ad targeting and other purposes. They have algorithms that show you content based on where you've been and sometimes based on conversations that your phone's microphone picked up when you weren't aware it was listening. You don't know that? It's a fact, everyone knows this by now. It's not paranoia.
@@SlingshotMustang I’m well aware of that and notice ads for products popping up right after I mention something in an email. Big Brother is watching for sure. But this video popped up in nearly everybody’s feed, not just people driving by. That likely was a coincidence. Coincidences do happen, even now in this dangerous political environment. But mention false teeth just for the h3ll of it in an email, and you will probably be swamped with ads for denture cleaner. Best wishes, and be safe! ~ retired long hauler
Historically, empires collapse on average every 250 years. Watching all the urban decay across this great country makes you wonder if this is the beginning.
@@kgrimes101 That’s not a fair statement. Imagine growing up around 100’s of 10,000+ sqft abandoned structures, 100’s of abandoned and empty government buildings.. please tell me how middle and low class people would be able to get rid of those things??
This is the first of your videos that I've watched, it showed up in my feed. I grew up in a small river town in IL so this touches my soul. You did a wonderful job on this, thank you for taking the time to research it and explain it so well. Loved it.
Been there many times. Always wondered why the brick buildings were crumbling. Someone told me that the ground was unstable due to mining. Some beautiful homes still in beautiful condition. Runaway slaves poured into Cairo. My dads neighbor in mtn view Missouri is a boat captain, he drives to Cairo for work.
In the oil boom town I grew up in, the buildings were built quickly, during the boom. Other than loosing the roof from not being maintained, the foundations were not that great and the mortar was not the best and is not maintained and sealed. What happens is that water will get in the mortar during a rain, then freeze, cracking a little bit of the mortar. After many years of this, the bricks have no support and fall.
There's never been any mining in the Cairo area, its has been flooded many times being at the confluence of the upper/lower Mississippi and Ohio rivers
Run away what? Man I'm no slave but to get away from the dammed fools with in my race? Of Course no Section-8/Public House! It would be no problem at all!
I have a merchant mariner friend and have driven him to work in Cairo for many years. I's so sad to see this beautiful river town neglected this way. Somethings gotta give instead of the levies.
Cairo, and most of southern IL, has been overlooked by Springfield and Chicago for decades. Sad. It was Jesse Jackson I believe that has a big to-do in Cairo back in the 60’s... it’s went steadily downhill ever since. I hope the new Port will breathe new life into this area, it’s in dire need. IL isnt a business friendly state... businesses leave IL all the time. Taxes are high here. 😞
SENATOR PAUL SIMON WORKED TIRELESSLY TO IMPROVE RACE RELATIONS IN CAIRO AND DESEGREGATE THE TOWN. RACISM IS WHAT DESTROYED CAIRO. WHITE BUSINESS OWNERS LEFT RATHER THAN SERVE BLACK RESIDENTS. AND HOUSING DEPT STOLE MONEY FROM POOR PEOPLE LEAVING THEM TO LIVE IN SQUALOR.
Correct. The taxes in IL help to kill these border towns. Living by the river must be beautiful. But, why would anyone choose the more expensive IL side?
Blue state mentality. The governor can't and wouldn't do it , stuck in the code blue remission of democrats. Capitalism creates innovation and motivation
I moved to a small rural town for a slower life. Including this town, there are dozens of towns in the area that are under 1500 population. My town has been growing slowly due to others like us who have left a large metro area which is approximately 70 miles away . Infrastructure has been maintained very well. Unfortunately, covid forced small business to close and may not make a comeback.
Yeah, I constantly hear housing is unaffordable but those complaining need to look at options outside big urban areas. Especially if you can work from home.
I was thinking (I’m not American just to put it out there), in such situations, would houses be cheaper? I’m thinking, If so, and if it’s safe enough, might be good to do getting a place as long as you have a car. Would be nice to have some neighbors though. Maybe 5 houses nearby But yeah, I’m not from the us but I love small town vibe, makes me sad seeing these happen
@@Cons2911 .. yeah they are a lot cheaper. My co-worker just moved to a small town in Colorado a bought a 2bdrm, 2 bath home for $78k. It needs some work and updating but is liveable and she works from home and likes to work on it.
@@Cons2911 housing is much cheaper, but , people want conveniences that don't exist in these little towns. take out, high speed internet, grocery stores closer than 20-30 mins etc
I always find videos like these fascinating. I was born and raised in the southwest where history really began for most cities when A/C was invented. So you don't really see many homes and businesses built before the 1950s. The town where I went to high school was created in the late 1800s. The last few years they have renovated the town which priced out the lower income families living in the older homes and they are demolishing these historic homes to build ugly and overpriced apartment complexes. The older homes were never really in fantastic shape but they really added character to the town. It's sad to see but at least the town is growing and not shrinking like Cairo.
It's so sad to see places like this just fall apart. I was curious as to why, so I looked it up on wiccopedia, and here is some of what I found. "From 1967 to 1973, an extended period of racial unrest occurred in the town of Cairo, Illinois. The city had long had racial tensions which boiled over after a black soldier was found hanged in his jail cell. Over the next several years, fire bombings, racially charged boycotts and shootouts were common place in Cairo, with 170 nights of gunfire reported in 1969 alone."😓
My dad was born in Wickliffe, KY, just across the river, but grew up in Cairo and considered it his hometown. Although I was born in Marion, IL, about 50 miles north of Cairo, my parents lived for a while in Cairo when I was a toddler (the mid 1940s). After we moved from southern Illinois, my family still went "home" every summer up until about 1996. I loved going through the tunnel going into Cairo because Daddy always honked the horn and my brother and sister and I thought that was a hoot! We were very easily entertained! We always had Mack's BBQ and family picnics at the park where we fried up a mess of cat fish.
Oing boating in our blue plastic wading pool, when the spring floods came, we'd launch our boat off the porch, into 3 ft of water that covered the yard and stress lol, a simpler time
Even in the rougher areas it still has an appeal to it, something about the geography and the architecture as a whole. Very quaint. I hope this town sees a revival.
"Very quaint." The state police and DEA busted out 19 separate crackhouses in Cairo in 2011 - that's in a city with ~150 occupied buildings at the time. Depopulation is absolutely the best thing for this city. The buildings are crumbling and heavily undercut with flooded subterranean tunnels. With how flood-prone it is, the city needs to be razed and turned into a historical park space.
@@Rutherford_Inchworm_III "everything you just said" Fantastic, I was only going off the video and how it looked to me. The architecture and layout is what I meant. I was sure at the time of the video that the city given it's financial problems surely had crime issues as well.
All my relatives on my fathers side were from there! The James ‘Panny” and Lulu Johnson family and he worked on the railway, lived in a 2 story house before and after the depression! I have never been there, thanks for the tour!
I rode my bicycle through Cairo on my way to Paducah. You are dead right to call it eerie. The looks I got from the folks that were still in town there were like that of hungry wolves noticing a deer straying from the herd. I beat it out of there super fast. Well, as fast as you can on a bicycle.
I was just down there a couple of months ago. I came down from steubenville Ohio ,10 hr drive, to pick up three of my friends who kayak down to there. It took them 29 day to kayak to Cairo. I also couldn't believe how the town was so empty and decimated. Your video is great.
The nearby town of Anna has a rather infamous history of being a sundown town (they say it's an acronym for "Ain't No N-words Allowed")--This area of the state was known to have slave owners before the civil war, even though Illinois was technically supposed to be a free state. Southern Illinois truly is like an entirely different state than the area surrounding Chicago. Even as someone who has lived in IL my entire life, I have an extremely hard time relating to the experiences of people in the more rural areas.
a lot of the midwest is full of sundown towns like illinois, wisconsin, minnesota, and Missouri. Ill never travel any where down south of chicago again, even up north the racial tensions still exist but not as bad as down south
I’m from Illinois and once you make it close to red bud you’re in danger. That came from a white police officer. I was on my way to Indiana with my brother friend and her car stopped. The police pulled over to help and she told him her uncle was on the way but it was getting dark. He told us we should be happy it stopped where it did because it wasn’t safe if we made it to red bud Illinois. It’s sad to say but I was scared and a lady coming from a revival in Chicago stopped and asked us did we need a ride. They stayed and the lady took me to my car. I now realize how dangerous both situations were because I felt that we weren’t going to make it to Indiana in her car but I went anyway because she had driven her car before. Never again
Still, it looks way, way better than Pine Bluff, AR. I see a lot of potential for future development, particularly in the area of outdoor recreation. And Cairo is ahead of the game by having already demolished a good part of the downtown blight. Likely won't happen in my lifetime, but...under the right conditions...Cairo has a good chance of re-inventing itself as a good place to live.
Pine Bluff is slowly getting eyes on it though. I always wonder what it would take for people to migrate and build back up one of these dying old towns. Rent is high everywhere and there are plenty of places like this where maybe one's dollar would not only stretch a bit further, but infuse life into a town like this' veins.
This was a very interesting video. I expected Cairo to be far different than it turned out to be. Yes, it is ghostly and there are few businesses. Many houses are abandoned. But I looked really carefully all the while, and there was NO trash. The streets, including the main street, were clean and there was no dumped garbage anywhere. Next to abandoned crumbling houses were well-kept and maintained ones. Every residential street was clean and many yards mowed. The many extremely fancy old houses seemed occupied and well preserved. There were no hoodlums or thug hanging about. The cleanliness of the place amazed me. Compare this to East St. Louis or Camden NJ.
Thanks for the video, I used to drive a truck through Cairo every few weeks, it was very depressing. I never got off of main street since I drove a truck so I missed all the side streets. The town was a lot dirtier and covered over more with weeds in 2016. Thank You for the tour!
I drove thru Cairo this summer. I couldn't believe that a city in the USA could be in such a dilapidated state. It was truly one of the most depressing things I have ever seen. 😔
Many places look like this. Rarely an entire town but if you have visited e.g. Detroits dilapidating corners, you know what I mean. The problem in the US is, that people in need and those who do not bring benefit for the state get left in the the ditch. Europe handles some stuff better than the greatest nation ever.
Not saying Cairo is a healthy town, but, some of the "depressing" look that city folks perceive is just the fact that you are used to businesses getting regular remodels & refurbs, but even in healthy small towns, the buildings won't look so spiffy. Our economies can't scale up like in urban areas, aesthetics have to take a back seat. I was back in NE Montana recently, saw my hometown was thriving again, but heard from tourists who passed thru that it was so depressing and run down. I think a lot of people expect Mayberry, but rural America just cannot afford to prioritize making things look like a movie set. I think a lot of people confuse tourist small towns with regular ones. Small resort towns are super cute but it's mostly a facade.
I can’t believe RUclips popped this video up for me. My late grandmother was born in this townZ in 1926 I never got a chance to see it as I was born in California and raised there. Totally amazing! To see this
@@JoeandNicsRoadTrip tell me about it. Here I am living in England and I wake up and turn on RUclips Never seen your channel before. And out pops this video!! Loved it! Sent it to my dad to watch
Thanks for this video. I grew up about 20 miles north of there and Cairo (pronounced Care-Oh) is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is a reflection of that general part of Illinois; economically depressed and in terminal decline. As an example, Alexander County had their patrol cars repossessed a number of years ago. While I did not spend a tremendous amount of time in Cairo, I did recognize everything - I've been to Magnolia Manor and my first car came from the Ford dealer there. I was last in Cairo five or six years ago and it was a shock then (I had not been there for the previous twenty years) and the downward spiral, sadly, just keeps going.
Alot of people who did reside in this area had dependence on farming mining barges and prisons that have been closed down or abandoned. It is unfortunate that this beautiful city is now and for some time now, been forgotten about. I remember doing city work here and there was a awesome little museum in the downtown area with civil war memorabilia and such.
@@maggiemae7539 A population of 1500 is hardly abandoned. Don't let the headline fool you. Cairo has been in dire straights for decades, but it's not exactly dying off either.
I think it's pretty cool that you posted a video about Cairo Ill ! I lived in Paducah for awhile, and Cairo was one of the "drive through" towns we would go through to get somewhere else. It has some interesting architectural buildings to check out during the day... But.. sadly at night... it's a little bit scary.
Sad to see cities and very small rural towns just completely go to ruins. I live in southeastern Arizona in a VERY tiny town of 300 people. Back in the days of the Apache, Chief Cochise was put on a train here. At that time, this town had about 1, 500 people. There are no houses for sale now; the last few houses that were bought sold for $40,000.
Been through Cairo many times while driving from Springfield, MO to visit family in TN. I love the area and history around Cairo. Thanks for the video!
Growing up(in St. Louis), we drove thru Cairo Illinois every year when we went to Kentucky. I had a first hand view of this town slowly dying out to nothing. Have some very cool pictures of the historical areas over the years.
I live about forty min away from Cairo. Besides the race riots and decline in industry, they have also had their wave of corrupt city officials. Swindling money from the residents of this once thriving community and playing favoritism to all of their friends. The Illinois Housing Authority had to come in and close down their federal housing due to misappropriation of funds, but just goes to show how Illinois operates. Misappropriated funds by the city and no oversight by the state. It's a lose-lose situation for all of the residents of Illinois. Such a geographically beautiful state too out shined by its corrupt politics and the headaches that come with it.
I have thought this about Illinois for quite some time. My oldest brother lives in Illinois and from the stories he has told me about businesses and people, etc. Not to mention when you go thru Chicago and areas like that where there are TERRIBLE roads/hwys, that are toll roads that are perpetually under construction, yet perpetually crappy.... It makes you wonder where in the hell all the money goes from the tolls if the roads are NEVER fixed. Plus the seriously high property taxes. It's just terrible being that the state itself is beautiful.
Sounds like Johnstown pa we got lots of redevelopment funds in the past squandered by the time everyone got their money the project was underfunded and you got something that could not benefit the community. We built a convention hall when we had no conventions so now it is called the great hall and one of the cronies runs it and makes lots of money from it . It’s looks like a mini Detroit vacant lots city blocks with one house remaining that someone lives in. I’am still here because I inherited property that i’am now stuck with. Old Victorian homes are very expensive to upkeep and it’s hard putting a new roof or fence up when everything around you is lots full of giant weeds . I mow the grass on an entire city block and i’am getting to old to do this and work over 50 hours a week . After thirty three years on the same job I now make $34,000 a year no money to leave and not enough money to stay 😂😂😂🤯.
This is an important point in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Jim and Huck pass Cairo in the fog. The original plan was to escape south on the raft and take a steamboat up the Ohio at Cairo. Obviously they miss it in the Fog. Twain wrote the book to this point and then put down the manuscript for many years before moving the story down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
I drove through Cairo frequently when I worked in Illinois during the mid to late eighties. Although my memory is rather fuzzy I seem to remember it being relatively busy back then with fairly heavy traffic and many nice little shops and restaurants lining the main drag. It's very sad to see how much the town has regressed since then.
My wife's family grew up in Cairo. (Now all a bit north.) We drove through about 10 years ago during a visit to Cape Girardeau, MO...it's just so surreal -- and captured very well in this video.
What a fascinating video! I love videos like this, that show and tell historical and current info without lots of drama & weird music! Thank you for being normal & letting natural sounds just be the background noise!
Lord Spoda , so many RUclipsrs think they are enhancing their videos with all the extra sound effects , and often if it’s not done appropriately , it just ruins the videos. Maybe I’m old fashioned, lol, but adding “more” is not always an improvement
Thank you, and I agree. A lot of the times they do flash editing with music, and you really can't gat a grip as to what you're seeing because the images go by so fast. I decided early on to linger on the sights so the viewer can see the area in detail and get a feel for it. I'm glad there's viewers like you who appreciate it. :)
This reminds me of another river city in Illinois, East St. Louis. After the meat packing plants closed in East St Louis it really went down. Nothing but a Hugh depressing dump.
Watching this video and surprised that you pronounced Cairo correctly and not like the city in Egypt. There is another town close to Cairo that is the kitty litter capitol of America, my ex brother in law was sent there to work on an army corp of engineers project back in the mid 90’s and we visited him there a few times
Thank you, Stephen.
@@Rick6767rick All of Southern Illinois is referred to as "Little Egypt" and there are several towns that carry the spelling of areas in Egypt, but many aren't pronounced the same way. I couldn't tell you why they are pronounced different, I suspect that many when many of the towns were named, people had read about the places in Egypt, but had never heard them pronounced! You can tell when someone isn't from Southern Illinois when they pronounce the towns the way they are pronounced in Egypt!!
@@amyralls6218 ah ok thanks for the info , you learn so much in the youtube comments section :)
potato... po-TA-to. eh!
l11
My mother was born here in 1936. I remember visiting in the 60s. It was called "Little Egypt." We would stay at my grandmother's sister's house, eating fried catfish sandwiches with homemade hotsauce on white bread. There'd be sweetened sun tea and lemonade. It wouldn't be very cold (we only got one ice cube each) but it was cool and wet. Being in Cairo in the summer was unlike anything I've ever felt, before or since. Crazy Uncle Boots used to say they lived in the devil's kitchen. I remember impoverished streets and homes that had once seen better days long before I knew the right words and the reasons why. I remember trying to sleep in a hot stuffy room, praying for a breeze to lift old, yellow lace curtains hanging in the open window. To this day, I don't know if I fell asleep or simply passed out due to the heat. I remember hearing my parents talking with great aunts and uncles mixed together with the incessant drone of cicadas while they sat out on the front porch. I remember my Aunties Lou and Erlister saying how bad things had gotten there for 'the colored folk' and that they were looking to leave. I remember them talking about MLK. We had family in Chicago. They eventually moved there but they never were able to convince Uncle Boots to leave. They used to whisper he wasn't right in the head after the war. I didn't understand then what that meant. I liked Uncle Boots. He used to sneak me hard candy. I didn't know it then but that would be the last time I would ever see him. It would also be one of the last times I would visit Cairo. I reckon that Cairo has been dying for perhaps longer than it was ever alive. I would also speculate that it will still be dying long after we're gone. Watching this video was bittersweet. So many memories . . .
Fantastic comment. Thank you for posting it. :)
It’s been wonderful sharing in your memories. So much detail that I can just about see it through your words. If you haven’t already, it might be nice for your family if you captured these kind of memories for them in a journal. Thanks.
High humidity in summer from all those rivers confluence no doubt.
You should write a book of your memories... we lose our history unless it is written...
That makes me so hungry!
I’m actually the Ups driver in Cairo. I have been for a few years now. You know I was almost talked out of taking the route. I’m glad I stayed. My customers are wonderful. A misunderstood area with a dense history!
Good for you.
So you always feel safe there? Not to judge a book by its cover but all the RUclips videos I'm kinda scared, and I live over in St. Clair County, a couple hours from Cairo. I've seen videos RUclips where people are just driving around exploring and they're being followed.
Are you the only one?
@@joanna7350 Probably less likely to happen to a UPS driver. It's very apparent what they're in the city to do, everyone wants their packages. An unknown vehicle on the other hand would be much more likely to be followed.
What the hell is "dense history?" Don't you mean "rich history" or "extensive history?" Apparently UPS drivers don't have a extensive vocabulary.
“I don’t know what people do for food and groceries” you had already answered your own question: Dollar General. Targeting the deepest parts of rural America is how that company has expanded to over 13,000 locations. They find dying towns whose last grocery store closed years ago, open shop, and offer reasonably priced food, healthy-beauty aids, and home goods. From ketchup to dental floss to cat food to bathroom towels, they really are a modern day general store. Each store provides about 12-ish jobs to the town as well. I worked at a DG for about 2.5 years.
@UCc463TowgsuTUjA7M5tPdAw Yup, Dollar General is fantastic for people with similar remote living situations. Glad to hear it’s made your life easier. Most of us in the cities and suburbs take for granted being able to get nearly everything we need within at most a 20 minute drive, including retailers and hospitals. It’s something I try to be grateful for and mindful of.
Your so right
The son of Dollar General lives I Nashville Tennessee where his father founded Dollar General. He gives millions of dollars to charity especially The Room in The Inn in Downtown Nashville that Ministers to the homeless community there. So Dollar General is a good company
They drive 30 miles to a Walmart in Sikeston Mo.
That’s all well and good if you ignore the instances where the local corner store is still around when DG comes to town and they still decide to set up shop and force them out.
On many a night, my Navy buddy from Cairo, Russell Mertz, told me all about his hometown as we sweated through another night in the Philippines. Russell was a great storyteller. The Gem Theater...Russell worked there in his younger years. Loved seeing this. We stayed in touch for 50 years. Finally got to see him just before he passed. So glad we got to see each other one last time.
I guess he’s never heard of Cairo, Egypt 🇪🇬 hate the way he mispronounces it
@@TOCC50 i can tell your not from southern il.
@@TOCC50 The locals pronounce it the that way so he is correct in this context
Thank U 4 serving in the United States Navy , God Bless America veterans 👌 ‼️
@@TOCC50 It is pronounced kayro.
I left Cairo in 1967, when I graduated high school. Cairo is pronounced (CARE ROW) not (KAY ROW). What is not known to the casual traveler is that the entire town is riddled with subterranean caverns. Huge sinkholes have appeared in the main streets making basements and new construction unthinkable. Waters from the Mississippi River on the west and the Ohio River on the east have destabilized the last 3 miles of southern Illinois. We knew this in 1967. Growth stopped in 1920 with the population at 15K. The area flooded in 1937 and again in 2011. The Civil War was the pinnacle of history for Cairo. Farm lands in southern Illinois are fertile from the flooding of the two rivers. Don't mourn for Cairo, Cairo died in the 1870's.
I've been through here. I thought this was metropolis though?
its actually pronounced Kai row. Like the city in Egypt. This area of the world is notorious for butchering other languages. Every french named street in st louis is mispronounced.
@@slavaukraine963 Metropolis is just upstream the Ohio, on the Illinois side.
@@michaelf7093 ok. I remember visiting an old fort in a park right where the Mississippi and the Ohio river meet.
There was also a casino boat on the river and a nuclear power plant across the way in Kentucky
Cairo, NY is pronounced the same way. Not like the city in Egypt. Lol
As someone who is fascinated by the USA, more specifically the rural part of the country, I love seeing this type of stuff. It's both sad and fascinating, I would love to travel through all these small towns, witness it myself and talk to the locals and hear their stories.
Stop talking about the South, everything southern of the Canadian border is down south...Malcolm X
Hi greetings from Jakarta Indonesia, I wish i could come and enjoy the long journey with you Thank you
yeah ... something I'm missing a tad in all this vids ... "a talk with the remaining people"
Some locals ain’t worth talking to unfortunately
Let us do it !! 👍😁😁🇺🇸😊
My daughter was in college in Chicago and we drove from Texas to bring her home due to Covid. We LITERALLY almost ran at of gas in Cairo. We were in a panic because we couldn’t find an operating gas station. Never let it get below 50 miles to empty any longer. The GPS sent us to a little convenience store and the guy working said they hadn’t sold gas in 20 years. 😱
Ouch! Yes, there is no gas station in Cairo. But you can get a new Ford there. :)
@@JoeandNicsRoadTrip Saw that. Gotta wonder where the dealer fills up the Fords for the test drives. I think we got back on the interstate and had to back-track some miles to a truck stop.
When traveling always buy gas when you reach half tank
@@unclesloppy5388 Wow, in most cars you would be stopping every 150 miles. my Silverado will go 400 miles between fill ups. But I carry a spare can of gas. I was born and raised in Wayne Co. which is 133 miles north. I live in Florida but I go back every spring to visit my family. I usually go through Evansville, but i might take that route through Carerow this spring.
Not for nothing but how do you let your gas get to the point of almost running out in the first place? I've never driven a car down that low in my life. That's the type of stuff you see in horror movies. If you're traveling and it gets anywhere below half tank, FILL IT UP.
Such a great way to preserve American history and educate people the world over. Really enjoy your matter of fact narration and reaction to the things you see. Most of your viewers it seems would never in a million years visit a place like this. Because you take us with you and your camera in tow, the legacy of place like Cairo leaps right off the screen and into our awareness unlike any book or magazine could ever do. Thanks for not using any production music here. It's perfect just the way it is. I'll bet every building/house you've shown us has many amazing stories to tell. If only those walls and yards could talk. Thanks again for doing what you do so well.
Cairo was where Grant's army assembled in preparation for his critically important Vicksburg Campaign. My great-grandfather's 8th Illinois was among the many Union regiments that encamped there.
That’s right.
Very interesting
My Great Great Uncle was General John M. Schofield. Thank God for the men of Illinois- from what I have read things could have easily gone the other way.
Your Great Grandfather was a brave man, thank you for sharing your story.
Yup gen Grant was a cool bro ster
Many of my ancestors served from Edwards and Wabash counties up Stream
I'm a trucker and 2 years ago we loaded big oversize wind mill tube sections in Cairo off of barges. They came from overseas to New Orleans, then on barges up the river to Cairo, then used big cranes to load onto our trucks and we took them to the windmill sites in Missouri.
My in-laws live on a ridge in MO in a line of these turbines. Kind of spooky especially at night.
That’s fantastic!
Oh wow! Thats really cool - thank you for sharing that!
Is it as bad as it looks or did you see any place to eat besides Dollar General
That solves a lot. Build windmills from China.
Every time we drive through this town I'm filled with sadness at its decay. But also each time my husband and I discuss how easy it would be to film a post-apocalyptic movie here. If you avoid the few homes that are kept up, one could imagine the voiceover for the trailer: "In a world ravaged by (insert tragedy here), towns lie in decaying ruins. But one man..." etc.
Love it. Better hurry though or there won't be enough for said movie. It's disappearing rapidly.
Either that or a nature-y horror movie would be perfect here! The overgrown houses and abandoned motel look especially ominous
if the shtf, it actually looks like a decent place to rebuild. River on two sides with embankments all around.
In a world ravaged by Wokeness... If not for the fact that this is in anti-America IL, this is the perfect town for 150 Patriot families to buy up and turn into a crime-free piece of Americana. Only drawback is the flooding. It's not that far to Cape Girardeau for gas and groceries, and they built an awesome bridge across the Miss in 2003 to get you there.
"War... war never chances"
I'm not sure why, but I find these video fascinating and sad at the same time. Thanks for the mini vacations!
Yes, me too, though I never lived or been in those towns. Something must be nostalgic about knowing that some life used to be somewhere with real people living there and making history albeit very limited in many cases. Humans are fascinating in their pursuit of happiness. They venture and dare to take risk, sometimes at the expense of leaving family and roots. Some settle down so far and never turn back. Some reunite after a very long time and yet some others disappear forever. I see those abandoned little towns as future cultural sites where people could stop by while traveling filling gas or staying the night over in a little motel. They don’t have to be beaten down or trashed out. Local governments could encourage investors like little convenient stores with gas pumps or small hotels and grocery stores to move in in exchange of land grants and tax cuts. Some of those towns would also make great barns for raising animals and farming especially those close to rivers and water streams. I know America could do better because many who are land deprived like Europeans are more appreciative of vacant land, let alone empty towns.
Ah Cairo my nemesis. I'm a truck driver and I'll do anything to avoid that route. Sometimes I can't. The bridge is narrow as heck, 82 is a narrow two lane highway with no margin for error or you end up in a ditch. The small winding streets are a maze but I have always been so fascinated by the almost abandoned town. I roll through with my camera and always try to get pictures. Abandoned towns are beautiful in a way. After rolling through I Googled the town and yes a torrid history. Always end up going this way when I'm going to that part of Missouri.
We use to take that bridge on family trips, going down to Georgia to see my grandparents. It was scary enough in a car, later, we would use that bridge, only in a motor home with our mirror just an inch or two from a semi mirror, coming the other way. One time, a little kid came on the CB radio, “mama can’t do it daddy.” The mom was driving behind in the family car, the dad who was ahead on the other side, in a camper, she was terrified of driving across that narrow bridge. A semi driver stuck behind the back up, parked his rig and volunteered to drive the car all in it, to the other side. I suppose he got a ride back.
I dread any of those bridges
@1954shadow that was cool of the driver. I dread that area. On those narrow one lane highways, there is no room for any mistakes.
@jl davis yes!!! My first time down through Cairo my co driver was driving. I sat in the passenger seat puckered. I told him I'll never do that. Little did I know I would later after getting my CDL. ugh
That bridge will separate the truckers from the wannabes
I lived in Cairo until recently. You missed the one nice section of town west of Washington between roughly 25th and 35th sts. Cairo looks pretty much like any other nice small town back in there. They are also supposed to start work on the new Port Of Cairo anyday now. Several companies have already made heavy investments into it so this will happen. They will need a thousand workers for construction alone. This is the biggest thing to happen in Cairo in nearly 100 years.
On to some of the negatives. Most of the population loss in the most recent census was due to the demolition of two large derelict projects. Very few were able to find new housing in Cairo so most left. Also local flooding, esp in 2011 drove many from Cairo after it was evacuated. The local electric provider charges 6-7 times the normal rate which is a large part of why bigger houses in particular are vacant. Even 15 years ago there were still many businesses open along the main drag. The town's last grocery store left 6-7 years ago. The areas with biggest employers are in Cape Girardeau MO and Paducah KY, most do their shopping there as well.
Interesting. I hope Cairo makes a comeback. It's in an amazing location. There's so much you could do there.
Not unless you can move illinois away from the neighboring states. I grew up in illinois across from st louis, I moved to Missouri too. Same reason every person and business moves to Missouri or Kentucky does... illinois is a failed state.
Well if this project goes I'm sure some workers will by a property and companies will buy any livable property to rent out . things will escalate fast. Be a boost for everyone. Maybe a store or 2 will open.
@@davidderler5924 Any store that opens will probably get robbed. That's one reason there are no businesses in Cairo.
I currently live in the part of Illinois across from St. Louis. I don’t think Illinois needs to be moved away from the neighboring states to survive. It needs separated from Chicago in order to survive.
The only thing that makes Illinois different from the neighboring states is that it’s run by the failed city of Chicago.
The part of Illinois that I live in is more like Missouri than like Chicago. Cairo is more like Kentucky and Missouri than like Chicago.
My daughter was one of the last children born at the Cairo hospital in 85. It was already partly demolished but was the only place our doctor had privileges, she was a little on the outside of mainstream but a good doctor. I haven't been there in several years but tried to buy a house for my wife's niece a few years back. There were many one time beautiful homes still around and some were being given away. The town still had the remains of many fine brick two and three story buildings. You could still get an idea of what it had been. I've always found it sad, once it's gone it ain't coming back, they don't build that way anymore. 😢
Wow, when my ancestors left all were born at home in late 1800’s.
Old world buildings
This is the first I heard of Cairo. My grandmother was born here in 1910. She never returned. I always wanted to know why her fanily left and NEVER returned. So sad. You have saved me a visit.
It will be back if America and our current state fall considering the location. With tbe republic barely hanging ok and a divide between many states and the federal government you can bet your inflated dollars that survivors will flock to vacant towns like Cairo
I have two experiences with Cairo: First was getting a ticket from a state cop as I exited back onto I-57 in 2001. It was literally only for 3 miles over the speed limit as I was accelerating from the exit to meet the speed on the interstate. Second was in 2002 trying to find a gas station at 4am. I pulled into a station that was fully lit at about 11:00pm, but the pumps weren't working and the store was locked. I rolled out of there when a car parked and blocked the exit out of the station. I just hopped the grassy curb and booked it out of there.
Yeah that was me in the driveway, so your the guy that hauled a## outta there, I was gonna try and tell where you could get gas that place closes at 10
@@guests5863 HA! 'The town after sundown' will be coming everywhere soon for out of towners.........
Wow, good for you.
smart move, hopping the curve
I also got a court appointed ticket while driving through an intentional speed trap. Required me having to travel back for my court. There was a single court room with soo many people they couldn't fit, only one local resident of the over 300 people there they let him go first and while speeding with no insurance he got off free while the rest of us got fines. 😅
As a truck driver I've passed by the town many times, and usually it's always flooded, I can see why nobody wants to live there. A town that's extremely prone to flooding by the river there is not a good idea
Very good point. I live up higher in elevation in my neighborhood. We had 10 inches of rain in 24 hours and our house was fine.
Move to where the jobs are booming
Move to where houses are affordable
Move to where it is safe to live
Buy a house at a nice, safe elevation
I was thinking when I clicked, that the flooding would have been why the town is abandoned. I can imagine so many businesses that would work well in a place like that--but not if it's a flood risk.
@@cariwaldick4898 Much like Olympia beer.... it's the water!
@Catania Momma Italia Most people in the mid-west don't think about flooding as a common occurrence, like those on the coasts do. In places like Louisiana they build on stilts, but here the problem is losing roads and bridges as well. When these areas flood, people get stranded for days, livestock is lost, pets are abandoned, and homes are destroyed. When the floods happen, debris washes down the river and could easily take out a house--even if it was on stilts.
@@LC.1990 Sorry, you need to do the research. No one can choose for you.
One of the weirdest coincidences about Cairo is that when the last ice age ended, the glaciers' southernmost advance reached as far as Cairo's location, and the last time the sea inundated North America, its northernmost advance was more or less to Cairo's location. 🧐
Fantastic! In 5th grade at Stark Elementary, Lovers Lane, Steubenville, Ohio, I had Mrs. HUBER for Geography Class in 1968! It was there that I did the ICE AGE Map for North America, covering continental U.S.A.! CAIRO must have been on the geography book's Map!
Thank You!
The sea from the Atlantic? please elaborate.
@@BE74297 Perhaps both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans way back then were really One Ocean, or semi-One: it was much later that the 2 seas SPLIT from each other into two entirely separate body-of-water identities? My speculation only.
@@BE74297 Probably more like the Gulf of Mexico if you want to be specific
This is a beautiful place!
I live in PA, For the past 2 years I have lived on 1,500.00/mo that's 18,000.00/yr. This is my choice, I'm 56 and have worked hard all my life, raised 3 boys myself. I saved enough that I could retire early. Now I have time to enjoy my grandchildren. I do not consider myself poor, I have a 1,750 sq ft home, I have 1/4 acre, garden, chickens, rabbits a dog and a cat. It's all about living within your means and being grateful for what you have and knowing that the rat race won't make you happy.
Exactly what I was thinking this is perfect town to own your first home and start slow to build for the future
Small town tomgansiki strikes agin with his small town propoganda🎉
Lol cope
@@LonokeCountyResearch501You are exactly right 💯 I would be happier there than CHICAGO. Here you don't know when you will get done for.
I was introduced to Cairo by the author/humorist, Mark Twain. He knew the city well, having spent his younger years on a steamboat plying the Mississippi River. The city is mentioned in both Huckelberry Finn and Tom Sawyer novels.
The final nail in the coffin was the Interstate bypassing the town in the late 1970's. I traveled through there many times earlier and Cairo was still the only bridge available so you had to go through town. Every one of those closed businesses used to be packed with locals and travelers. I believe I-57 opened around about 1977 and soon after, the first businesses started pulling out.
There's a housing crisis. If unclaimed houses are remotely intact/ usable, this would be an opportunity for the bold and the desperate, were it not for househoarding, bulldozing banks. Just like Gary Indiana. A city fullvof empty houses, hoarded and bulldozed by the banks that seized them.
@@michaelm5405 sadly when the poor move in they most likely will get worse
stuff thats free aint appreciated mostly - taken for granted
I 55.
they did to cairo what they did to all the small towns off route 66
need a new model in order to bring these small towns back from the brink
@@jamesbeason9256 No, it's I-57. When I used to travel through in the late 70s, early 80s,, the interstate was still being built. The interstate stopped at Hwy 51 (which is the main street through town) so then you could cross the skinny steel bridge over the Mississippi. Once they built the interstate bridge, unless you needed gas or food, you only noticed Cairo off in the distance as you passed it by.
Even with all the dilapidation, there's something special about Cairo. Good vibes.
I noticed that too.
When I was a kid in the 60's in West Tennesse we would pass through Cairo going to visit my grandparents in Central Illinois. The interstate was the final blow to Cairo taking revenue away from the city. . I drove through there a year or so ago to see for myself. It's sad to see a historic city crumble.
Yep. You are absolutely correct.
I live in central Illinois and dated a guy from Cairo, Illinois when I was in college… it was always a place that looked neglected and run down to me
I live in central Illinois too.
We used to take that way to Trimble, TN to the in laws. I liked going over the bridge into KY and stopping in Wickliffe for cheap cigarettes. Now we take 24 to Paducah for gas then down to Trimble.
@Mike Collon That paper mill probably gave a lot of people Parkinson’s disease.
This was so interesting to me. Thank you for making this video. My father was born in Cairo and lived there where he was a little boy, before his family moved up the river to Alton, IL, just north of St. Louis. He'd be 95 now if he were still alive and would be, I'm sure, astonished to see its current condition. We didn't have any family living in the area but we did visit when I was a kid, so early 70s-ish. It was not in such bad shape then. How sad to see what's become of it.
Anyone that every read "Huckleberry Finn" knows about Cairo. The river traffic is not near as active as it was 20 years ago. Back in the 70's and 80's most small towns lost their hospitals due to the operational expense. You have several large cities close to Cairo and that is probably the reason they lost the grocery store.
Cairo needs a benefactor. It would be the perfect city for an "abortion clinic" boom. The city needs to get grants to tear down the bad homes.
Cairo also features in Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
Southern Illinois is a beautiful place, ancient and stunning. Maybe in our lifetimes we'll visit Cairo for purpose other than watching the homes decay.
Most of the "close" hospitals are a minimum of 30 miles away from Cairo! Try that trip when you're having a heart attack, or have a serious illness and in need of medical support!!!
during the 60s there was very bad racial tensions in cairo
I read every bit of Huckleberry Finn
It's amazing how many beautiful, well-kept houses there are! Too bad you didn't stop to talk to that man coming out of his house - I'm sure he would have been able to provide a lot of history about the town.
I’m not Americanbut stayed (work) in the us for almost 6yrs and I love small town vibe, so much so that when we travel we usually take the route of small towns (instead of expressway) eighteenth or or from (to change the scenery). It’s slower than expways but I like driving through them, stopping even.
So peaceful, sure it can be boring maybe at times, but I like it. Kind of place where everybody knows everybody. And i feel sad to see some of them being abandoned
I do that a lot too, take the U.S. highways, preferably 2-lane when I can, or even the smaller state highways sometimes. People say "there's nothing out here" but to me, driving past subdivisions, shopping centers and convenience stores makes for "nothing".
Exactly! Nothing to see on the interstate but interstate.
@@vinniebarusa yup, it’s just convenient. So when we have time, I don’t mind a bit longer trip. As a foreigner , we only see these before in movies! That was quite an experience for us, esp the first few ones
So glad that you covered Cairo, IL.
Cairo was a major memorable location for me, starting as an infant (first passing thru Cairo in 1954) and throughout my pre-teen childhood years.
We lived in Chicago, but since my mother's side was all in Louisiana, we would take at least 2 trips per year between Chicago to just north of New Orleans, either by train or by driving in car. The first 6 or so years were before I-57 was even built, and if we drove we'd take old Hwy 51 all the way, passing right thru Cairo.
The train trips had a huge memorable part, as that was back when the Illinois Central 'Panama Limited' (sleeper car train) and the Illinois Central 'City of New Orleans' train (of the infamous Arlo Guthrie song) were in existence. The memorable highlight at Cairo was my parents telling me and my sister "to be ready to see the back & front of the train we were on", as there was a long 90° curve in the railroad tracks at Cairo and as the train was in that curve, we could look out the train window and see nearly the entire front and back halves of the train we were on, while in that long 90° curve.
I still recall on an early trip we were taking by car, back in the late 1950's, due to horrendous weather we had to stop overnight and stayed at a motel on Hwy 51 in Cairo, which I have no doubt was the same (long closed) Belvedere Motel you filmed at the 21:09 mark. It's hard to believe that was approx 65 years ago.
Thanks for sharing this.
I have been through Cairo a good many times on my way to Paducah, Ky, by way of Wickliffe. Going through Cairo, at night, on my Harley was an experience. Not a particularly good one, but I lived to tell about it! Cairo, like many of these Mississippi Delta towns are just sad. Once grand little cities, now just remnants of what they were, gone all to staves.
I just wrote a comment saying I can imagine how creepy it is at night here.
You work on tugboats? I only ask because Paducah is a big river boat community if I’m not mistaken. I grew up on the Ohio in Point Pleasant, W. Va.
@@EvLDJGetRite I went through there at night in July and other than the one Bronco they couldn't fit in the dealer a cop was the only other car I saw. It wasn't really creepy but I wasn't on a 4 or 500 lb bike. I was in a 2 too car.
You spelled slaves wrong
@@codykp. No sir. I'm steel mill trash. You're right about Paducah being a big towboat town, though. I used to date a real sweet gal up there, so that was the draw for me. I found it to be a real nice town.
I grew up in southern Illinois and always thought of it as where the midwest meets the south. You should have talked to that guy coming out of his house- he probably would have been happy to have someone to talk to. Many such small towns in the midwest now are full of retired people- the younger folk have moved on.
Illinoise is very long north to south I don't know how many miles but the northern border is even with southern Massachusetts and Cairo is even with Norfolk, VA. Quite a span!
I also would have loved hearing from the man who waved coming out of the big house!
Definitely a southern influence in downstate Illinois. Lots of 'stars & bars' (confederate) flags flown down there to this day.
Not a place for young people.
@@maidenthe80sla you would if you had spent your life there and couldn't afford to live anyplace else.
My family was a big road-tripping family and one of my dad's tales he always told about going through Cairo way back when. He thought it was the coolest that he ordered catfish from some joint and having the choice of either catfish from the Ohio River or the Mississippi.
Segregation is always the safest way to go
mississippi all day
@@TOCC50 why?
@@gabrielal6872 DMTBKA
WHOA, they've cleaned up the state park there a LOT since I went through in Spring of 21! That place was an abandoned wreck, totally overgrown and clearly neglected for years. nice to see it getting some much-needed love, it's a great spot and a fascinating bit of American history.
My entire family is from southern Illinois. I spent allot time in all those southern towns like Benton, Marion, Golcanda, Cairo and the like. Seeing your video was definitely a path to the past. Lots of great memories. Thanks for sharing.
Is it really humid there in the summer? Lots of bugs?
@@kbanghart
The rivers increase the already high humidity. And the summers are HOT.
I'm born and raised Texan but, my yankee cousins are all southern Illinois...Albion and Mt. Carmel. We did a lot of swimming, fishing, and skippin' stones in the Wabash River which was a short walk from the house. I remember the walk to the river as humid, with corn fields and oil wells all around. Good times.
My wife and I drove through Cairo just a few months ago, beginning of summer, and noticed how desolate it seemed.
I was born and raised in Southern Illinois. It's been almost 50 years since I left and it's shocking the changes to Cairo since I was last there.
Makes me think of a quote from “Wind, Sand and Stars” by Antoine St. Exupery (1939):
“One thing that I had loved in Paraguay was the ironic grass that showed the tip of its nose between the pavements of the capital, that slipped in on behalf of the invisible but ever-present virgin forest to see if man still held the town, if the hour had not come to send all those stones tumbling.”
I used to go there in the early to mid 80’s on school trips to Fort Defiance. It was still a decent town then but drugs and crime got really bad. Lots of people started leaving. The town was almost abandoned completely during the floods in 2011. Sink holes were popping up all over town making it very dangerous. The Main Street you were on used to have a trolley car in the early years. There was a lot of big beautiful homes there when I was a kid but almost all of them are gone now. Very sad… very sad!
It seems so strange to me that a town built on a major river delta, right on the edge of a bunch of other states, would even be able to fail in the first place. There had to have been some real mismanagement here.
Totally agree.
True statement
1980 worked on the river from Pittsburgh flipping through the phone and I seen these stories and it’s heartbroken I remember being on the barges up and down the river is beautiful I remember Cairo vividly that bridge picking up and dropping off barges sad to see the declineIn the story
My dad is from Paducah Kentucky worked on the river I joined them when I was 18 sad to see the decline of America what was worse you were on your own no help from Reagan The point is my dad had to leave Paducah and made it in Pittsburgh back in 1930 but today where do you go start a life find a job buy a house like my daddy did PittsburghThank God for Pittsburgh rolling on the river what’s a fabulous time
Illinois kinda sucks to live in.
I was born and raised in Mississippi, moved North for work in the sixties, lived there until retirement. I made two trips each year, back to see my parents, down interstate 57. I drove through Cario, then across the Ohio. This happened over 35 years. I always stopped in Cario, for gas. As the years went by, I saw the decline of a beautiful town. I retired in 2010, folks are gone, no more trips. It was sad to witness the death of a once important place.
I like how this channel brings back memories of people who once lived in a little town. Especially people who never have gone back since they left when they were young. Thank you for making all good videos.
I can't imagine never going back home to visit.
I would love to live in a small rural town with some land these days are very sketchy
I spent a good 6 years working on both the the Illinois section of the Ohio and the Mississippi River up to Alton conducting fish population surveys. I spent many a time in Cairo along with several similar small towns like E-Town, Olmstead, and old Shawneetown. Sure, one might say that they’re all close to ghost towns nowadays but it’s fascinating to think that this area used to be the bustling heart of Illinois at one point. I like to still hope that places like these either grow back up in population or at least be remembered for their importance in U.S. history.
im a lifelong chicagoan that recently bought a home in southern illinois and as much as I love Cairo, living there (even if its part time) was too much for me - so i chose Metropolis
Thanks for this! I did a similar tour of Centralia, PA. It’s even more ghost, only 3 or 4 occupied houses because the entire town was condemned so the holdouts are just people refusing to leave. The one thing I would have liked to see here would be you going into one of the few open establishments, buying something and talking to the remaining residents.
Go look at Detroit. Cairo X 90 in area, same look - end to end.
I agree
My mother grew up in this town. I've always wondered what this town looked like. Thank you for the trip.
Dicken"s opinion of the US was very unfavorable even after two trips to the US. American audiences responded negatively to his novel "Martin Chizzlewit" which was partly inspired by what he observed in Cairo. He considered the city to be a island of terror and lacking in civilized morals. It was the inspiration for "Eden" in the novel.
Perhaps Dickens was a real-life scrooge...lol
Yes. That was the book that escaped me right then, lol.
Wow
Thank you John. I have added that to my reading list.
River towns were known for criminal activities. Transient river crews would gamble, drink employ women prostitutes and leave. Rough life for less than wealthy.
I live right along the Ohio River at Louisville Kentucky and I walk my dog along the river every morning.
I love to watch the barges moving up and down the river.
Thanks for the nice view of the confluence.
I've never seen it before.
We drove the back streets of the town in April. Based on the size of the houses, school, commercial buildings clearly it was a affluent town. It is an odd set-up. Half of the buildings/ houses are well-kept and half are empty. Standing at the rivers confluence is an awesome sight.
Absolutely. A drive down Millionaire's Row confirms it.
A few years ago, I was just outside Cairo when I saw a few cars stopped . A White woman was along the interstate holding a young Black guy. I stopped to see what was going on and the victim said he had been shot in the back over a drug deal. Nobody seemed to know what to do, so I took over first aid and wrote down what he said. A trooper pulled up, but he refused to talk to him. I gave the statement to the trooper. A couple of men were just watching. I asked them what they saw and they both identified themselved as police officers for Cairo. Good thing I'm a retired officer.
I watch video's until ads then I'm done. See ya
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You are so right. I once lived in a relatively prosperous block in Cairo while a couple of blocks over was nothing but collapsing abandoned houses. Cairo once had close to 20,000 people and was the hub of the region. The confluence of the rivers is an amazing and beautiful sight. I think it needs to be some sort of national park based on its importance and key role it played in westward expansion. Nearly everybody moving west passed by and/or stopped in Cairo.
Before I retired from truck driving, I detoured off of the main route to tour Cairo. It was very late at night and the whole experience was sobering to say the least. I saw absolutely no people or moving cars, trucks or trains. There is so little lighting and useable structures I doubted I was in a town at all. I certainly expected a small town but what I observed was little more than nothing.
When I was eight years old, my family was driving back from Mexico to Chicago. When hit a bit of bad weather driving over the I-57 bridge there off Cairo. My dad pulled under an overpass to wait out the storm. When it passed we continued into Cairo for gas to find the town almost leveled by a tornado. This breakout of storms is known as, The Marion, Illinois tornado outbreak. We were lucky to live through it. It's a shame to see the town in shambles like that. Another historic landmark lost to time. Thanks for sharing.
The Marion IL tornado was 50 miles away from Cairo, not even close to the town of Cairo. It started touching down around Carterville, IL and followed along parallel to Route 13 as it made it's way to Marion. I have a friend who was killed in the Marion tornado. Again, Cairo was untouched. There was no outbreak of tornadoes, it was one storm cell. Cairo has just been falling down and into disrepair for years, which is really sad. The town is getting ready to have a new grocery store after quite a few years without one; a project several citizens of Cairo have been working on for a while, and that is being made possible with help from a program from the local community college. Construction is set to start on the store in the coming months.
@@JonathanHiller Then which tornadoe hit Cairo? I distinkly remember going through there and seeing trees uprooted, and a motel in ruins.
Please tell the truth when u try to sound like a know it all
@@alwaysfaithfulalwaysforwar9400 Are you refering to me?
@@thesquigglespin What year were you 8 y/o? There is no overpass to pull under when you get off the bridge at Cairo and Cairo has never been hit by a tornado.
From what I understand of Cairo, and many other small towns down in the "Lincoln's Chin" region, they are kept alive in large part due to the slew of Corrections facilities nearby. As a former *tourist?* of said facilities in my more youthful spirited years, a lot of the Corrections Officers down there would talk a lot about how their quality of life was so much better than their neighbors due to these jobs. I was always confounded by how much vitriol and contempt they held for the prisoners because they were mostly from Chicago. Most people you meet in those facilities are people who committed some "victimless" crime like driving with no license repeatedly or were caught with some weed, especially in the larger minimum or medium security institutions. They hated us so much and yet our transgressions were the infusion of income that stretched the deaths of these towns into decades instead of years.
While down there I picked up on the fact that a majority of the black COs lived in Cairo. Not sure if it's true but I was told that it was one of the first free cities that runaway slaves would encounter on their journey north and as a result a lot of them would stay, settle and rebuild their lives there.
It is alarming to learn just how many people are incarcerated down there in towns like Tamms (my old address at 8500 Supermax Rd), Pinckneyville (also an old address of mine), Vienna, Shawnee, etc.
One thing I'll never forget is the Shawnee National Forest butting up to a lot of these institutions and the fresh air (if I ever got any)and wildlife that would creep right up to the edge of the prisons. I've hiked and camped out quite a bit down there later in life as a free man and always wanted to visit Cairo but was always afraid to bump into someone who genuinely wronged me as an employee of those institutions and end up right back down there against my will.
They get $6 for every $1 in tax they pay. They are on welfare supported by insane taxes on folks up the North the state in Chicago area.
In part, the correctional system functions as a way supply state funds to rural areas. Assuming the industrial base has decamped, if you don't have a tourist attraction, a university, or a regional medical facility, you need a correctional facility to support a town.
Its because theyre "city folk" or, funnily enough, also called "tourists". A lot of small towns dont like city folk and I would be lying if I said I dont share some of that contempt.
@@ptrd4111 "They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool" is a line from a John Lennon tune. I'm presenting it here in order to ask you: How much would jobs have to pay an hour for locals to overcome their xenophobia and welcome outside job opportunities and people?
Oh yeah, I'm sure you were really wronged by employees at a supermax, oh for sure. I wonder what 'victimless crime' you committed to wind up in a closed super max?
My wife grew up there in the 60's and remembers the racial tension and the riots. We have visited Cairo twice since her last residence there, the latest being 2020. It's sad to see a town decay like this.
Theres still racial tension except it's just young blacks that hate everyone. A friend of mine family owned a bbq restaurant in cairo. Some young cairo thugs were caught stealing there so he kicked them out. They came back and burned his restaurant to th ground. Things like this happen all th time there. I dont recommend going
@@kevinhowe3280 I regularly drive all over the state for enjoyment and boredom. Any time I'm heading toward Cairo I don't.
@@kevinhowe3280 It was the Whitefolks that started the racial tension, doesn't your Bible say you reap what you sow. 🤔
@@rudybrooks3722 it's always th white man lmao idc what the Hebrew myths say btw
@@kevinhowe3280 I'm not a Hebrew and I don't follow their ideology or the Bible, the Truth is,Whitefolks started the racial tensions in that town and in many other towns across the USA.🤔
I have passed over those bridges many many times back and forth from Missouri to Kentucky! The 2024 eclipse will cross over over this town. Love the old 1800 homes! Its so empty now... but you can just see the potential and what used to be!
Not accepting to the guy who was born and raised there said you can't build new due to structure damage from the water it's decaying
My family and I drove through Cairo this summer on our way to Chattanooga. It was jaw-dropping to see every single business in town was boarded up with the exception of the liquor store and smoke shop. Ohio River as you would drive down the street there would be a really big nice house fresh paint and then the house next to it the roof would be collapsed in on. Shocking...
Must be like my home town, Gary Indiana. It looks like Beiruit.
Jess. I know why, but can't say.
The drone shot starting at 1:55 of the video is FANTASTIC !. I love the spot where the land juts out and forms a little peninsula between the two rivers. YOU stood at the end of that piece of land where I pictured myself standing. I am so jealous....!! At 11:35 the house covered in ivy reminded me of Cousin Itt from the Addams Family !......I bet the house at 22:10 started rotting with a leaky roof and now it is about to cave in on itself. If a heavy pigeon lands on the roof, it is over !........... To change the subject just a bit, your inspection sticker expired at the end of September. I hope you got your inspection completed........I am a retired car repair guy, I can't help myself !!.....THANK YOU, for another great video.
Thank you, Charlie. And yes, I got my inspection updated. :)
Great Video... People didn't believe me when I told them about this town. The Federal Government wanted to flood the town. The only thing that stopped it was the valuable farm land that's next to it. It truly is the lowest point in Illinois in elevation and poverty. Thanks for taking the time to make this video.
"lowest point in Illinois in ... poverty." East St. Louis, Il just said "hold my beer".
I visited Cairo in late 2020 and it looked something like Kosovo after the bombings, I was completely shocked. Most people know the American heartland's been murdered by 50+ years of steady deindustrialization and outsourcing, but it's only when you actually go see it can the full scope of the human tragedy begin to be understood.
If you really want to know what happened to Cairo, ask the older people who are still there. Ask about what happened in the '60's and after. It's like all the big cities, only it was once a beautiful little town.😔
@@jimhayden5798 I wrote a book about what happened to my quiet little suburb in Northern Calfirona in the 60s. About the same thing. MLK's "non-violent" demonstrations carried a violent wake behind it.
@@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244 FOH. It wasn't civil rights movement, it was the capitalists deciding to send american jobs and factories overseas to line their pockets. It couldn't be any clearer than that.
@John Smith
Great point! When we stopped manufacturing things our towns went downhill. Look at the beautiful architecture in dying towns like Sterling, Illinois. Very sad.
@@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244 Don't Blame this on MLK,racism and White Supremacy gave birth to the Civil rights movement 🤔
I know quite a few families that migrated from Cairo to Freeport, IL. The majority of the families never went back. The conversations about Cairo were quite interesting and some very disturbing. It seems like all small town IL cities have similarities .....sad and dark! Great video.
These are some of the most interesting comments I’ve seen to almost any video. Thanks!
Although its empty and desolate, I can’t help but notice how neat it seems to be. Most lawn areas are mowed, common areas have lights, and I don’t see a lot of garbage or graffiti in random areas. Seems different from other dying towns…
I loved the tour of Cairo. What a shame that a bustling little city is just disappearing into the ground.
perfect place to create "electric boats" industry. just saying.
DEMONRATS WANT THIS FOR ALL AMERICA!!!
I drove through in July for the first time and was blown away by all the crumbling and abandoned buildings, but also the cool old historic buildings. Thanks for the in-depth tour, and I hope Cairo can make a recovery.
Thank you for the comment, Frank.
It's doubtful. It floods terribly every year. Need to let the rivers take it.
Once wealthy river and railroad towns have given way to interstate trucking and the Chinese crap they hall .sadly there is no coming back for Cairo and many towns like it.
In 2020 we went through Cairo, and it was a sad, deserted little town. We thought how sad it was to see such a town that died with few cars and people in the streets. This year, 2022, there were more new stores were opened and more people walking and driving around. This town does seem to be coming back with people investing in it.
it really won't be coming back to be honest ...
I agree I think it’s making a real comeback. I agree I don’t think it’ll ever make a comeback.
@@louskunt9798 good point
@@mikeskywatcher6763 🤣😂🤣✌️
@@louskunt9798 😁😁😁😁😁
this is yet another town lost to the American roadway. with the Lincoln Highway being routed and gradually built, starting in 1913, river towns that weren’t at the mouth began to die at rapid rates. confluence towns have been thus, ‘abridged,’ from American importance. so unimportant they’ve disappeared almost entirely. thank you for documenting and historicizing this forgotten town!
I’m loving the introductions to where these places are on the map! Really find myself looking forward to your vids! So fun to ride along!
Thank you for the kind words, Jennifer!
Crazy coincidence that this video just popped up in my recommended (or probably not coincidence at all, but Google spying on me). I'm a trucker and just 3 days ago I passed through here, coming from Wickliffe KY, on my way back to the Chicago area. First time ever driving through here, I remember thinking it was a somewhat charming little town but very empty. I was impressed with the nice architecture of that St Patrick's Church (the same one you passed by). Didn't see much of the residential area of the town though, had no idea it was actually this decayed and on the verge of becoming a ghost town. From the looks of it it was certainly booming a hundred years ago, looks like a bunch of Victorian era houses that have seen better days.
It's funny you said that because for the first time I passed through Cairo on Monday August 29th 2022. Wow. I'm just learning about Cairo from this video too. I live in Decatur illinois (another dead-end town🙄but I never heard of Cairo.
When the money goes so does the town
I hope you aren’t being paranoid. It popped up on my recommendation, too, and I’m nowhere near it.
@@kathyyoung1774 Paranoid? about what? You are aware that your phone and Google know where you're at and use your location to determine what things pop up on your phone, right? It's for ad targeting and other purposes. They have algorithms that show you content based on where you've been and sometimes based on conversations that your phone's microphone picked up when you weren't aware it was listening. You don't know that? It's a fact, everyone knows this by now. It's not paranoia.
@@SlingshotMustang I’m well aware of that and notice ads for products popping up right after I mention something in an email. Big Brother is watching for sure. But this video popped up in nearly everybody’s feed, not just people driving by. That likely was a coincidence. Coincidences do happen, even now in this dangerous political environment. But mention false teeth just for the h3ll of it in an email, and you will probably be swamped with ads for denture cleaner. Best wishes, and be safe! ~ retired long hauler
Historically, empires collapse on average every 250 years. Watching all the urban decay across this great country makes you wonder if this is the beginning.
We've always treated our urban poor this way, just look at the South Bronx or East Harlem in 1980 and compare them to today.
@@stephenbrand5661 Maybe the urban poor should start cleaning up after themselves.
@@kgrimes101 That’s not a fair statement. Imagine growing up around 100’s of 10,000+ sqft abandoned structures, 100’s of abandoned and empty government buildings.. please tell me how middle and low class people would be able to get rid of those things??
Greed is killing our country , people are screwing people for everything. The government is leading the way.
The US has only been an empire for about 125 years. So, probably halfway there.
I've been to Cairo. I enjoyed every minute of it. Rode camels around the pyramids and toured the national museum.
This is the first of your videos that I've watched, it showed up in my feed. I grew up in a small river town in IL so this touches my soul. You did a wonderful job on this, thank you for taking the time to research it and explain it so well. Loved it.
Been there many times. Always wondered why the brick buildings were crumbling. Someone told me that the ground was unstable due to mining. Some beautiful homes still in beautiful condition. Runaway slaves poured into Cairo. My dads neighbor in mtn view Missouri is a boat captain, he drives to Cairo for work.
In the oil boom town I grew up in, the buildings were built quickly, during the boom. Other than loosing the roof from not being maintained, the foundations were not that great and the mortar was not the best and is not maintained and sealed. What happens is that water will get in the mortar during a rain, then freeze, cracking a little bit of the mortar. After many years of this, the bricks have no support and fall.
There's never been any mining in the Cairo area, its has been flooded many times being at the confluence of the upper/lower Mississippi and Ohio rivers
Run away what? Man I'm no slave but to get away from the dammed fools with in my race? Of Course no Section-8/Public House! It would be no problem at all!
A lot of these homes have mold from moisture from rivers and humidity some homes that have brick 🧱🧱 fights mold more secure
It’s earthquake country.The ground shifts everyday
I have a merchant mariner friend and have driven him to work in Cairo for many years. I's so sad to see this beautiful river town neglected this way. Somethings gotta give instead of the levies.
My northern relatives visited southern relatives in Cairo in the 1940's and that is where they first experienced segregated water fountains.
Cairo, and most of southern IL, has been overlooked by Springfield and Chicago for decades. Sad. It was Jesse Jackson I believe that has a big to-do in Cairo back in the 60’s... it’s went steadily downhill ever since. I hope the new Port will breathe new life into this area, it’s in dire need. IL isnt a business friendly state... businesses leave IL all the time. Taxes are high here. 😞
Thanks to the Democrats that run this state remember in November vote red
SENATOR PAUL SIMON WORKED TIRELESSLY TO IMPROVE RACE RELATIONS IN CAIRO AND DESEGREGATE THE TOWN. RACISM IS WHAT DESTROYED CAIRO. WHITE BUSINESS OWNERS LEFT RATHER THAN SERVE BLACK RESIDENTS. AND HOUSING DEPT STOLE MONEY FROM POOR PEOPLE LEAVING THEM TO LIVE IN SQUALOR.
Correct. The taxes in IL help to kill these border towns. Living by the river must be beautiful. But, why would anyone choose the more expensive IL side?
Blue state mentality. The governor can't and wouldn't do it , stuck in the code blue remission of democrats. Capitalism creates innovation and motivation
Another city killed in the 60s
I moved to a small rural town for a slower life. Including this town, there are dozens of towns in the area that are under 1500 population. My town has been growing slowly due to others like us who have left a large metro area which is approximately 70 miles away . Infrastructure has been maintained very well. Unfortunately, covid forced small business to close and may not make a comeback.
Yeah, I constantly hear housing is unaffordable but those complaining need to look at options outside big urban areas. Especially if you can work from home.
Covid didn’t force the businesses to close, bureaucrats did!
I was thinking (I’m not American just to put it out there), in such situations, would houses be cheaper?
I’m thinking, If so, and if it’s safe enough, might be good to do getting a place as long as you have a car. Would be nice to have some neighbors though. Maybe 5 houses nearby
But yeah, I’m not from the us but I love small town vibe, makes me sad seeing these happen
@@Cons2911 .. yeah they are a lot cheaper. My co-worker just moved to a small town in Colorado a bought a 2bdrm, 2 bath home for $78k. It needs some work and updating but is liveable and she works from home and likes to work on it.
@@Cons2911 housing is much cheaper, but , people want conveniences that don't exist in these little towns.
take out, high speed internet, grocery stores closer than 20-30 mins etc
I always find videos like these fascinating. I was born and raised in the southwest where history really began for most cities when A/C was invented. So you don't really see many homes and businesses built before the 1950s.
The town where I went to high school was created in the late 1800s. The last few years they have renovated the town which priced out the lower income families living in the older homes and they are demolishing these historic homes to build ugly and overpriced apartment complexes. The older homes were never really in fantastic shape but they really added character to the town. It's sad to see but at least the town is growing and not shrinking like Cairo.
It's so sad to see places like this just fall apart. I was curious as to why, so I looked it up on wiccopedia, and here is some of what I found.
"From 1967 to 1973, an extended period of racial unrest occurred in the town of Cairo, Illinois. The city had long had racial tensions which boiled over after a black soldier was found hanged in his jail cell. Over the next several years, fire bombings, racially charged boycotts and shootouts were common place in Cairo, with 170 nights of gunfire reported in 1969 alone."😓
My dad was born in Wickliffe, KY, just across the river, but grew up in Cairo and considered it his hometown. Although I was born in Marion, IL, about 50 miles north of Cairo, my parents lived for a while in Cairo when I was a toddler (the mid 1940s). After we moved from southern Illinois, my family still went "home" every summer up until about 1996. I loved going through the tunnel going into Cairo because Daddy always honked the horn and my brother and sister and I thought that was a hoot! We were very easily entertained! We always had Mack's BBQ and family picnics at the park where we fried up a mess of cat fish.
Oing boating in our blue plastic wading pool, when the spring floods came, we'd launch our boat off the porch, into 3 ft of water that covered the yard and stress lol, a simpler time
Wow, you picked a beautiful day to visit Cairo! Yeah, it’s a pretty depressed “city” but it’s great to see that there are a few beautiful buildings.
Even in the rougher areas it still has an appeal to it, something about the geography and the architecture as a whole.
Very quaint.
I hope this town sees a revival.
"Very quaint."
The state police and DEA busted out 19 separate crackhouses in Cairo in 2011 - that's in a city with ~150 occupied buildings at the time. Depopulation is absolutely the best thing for this city. The buildings are crumbling and heavily undercut with flooded subterranean tunnels. With how flood-prone it is, the city needs to be razed and turned into a historical park space.
@@Rutherford_Inchworm_III "everything you just said"
Fantastic, I was only going off the video and how it looked to me.
The architecture and layout is what I meant.
I was sure at the time of the video that the city given it's financial problems surely had crime issues as well.
All my relatives on my fathers side were from there! The James ‘Panny” and Lulu Johnson family and he worked on the railway, lived in a 2 story house before and after the depression! I have never been there, thanks for the tour!
I rode my bicycle through Cairo on my way to Paducah. You are dead right to call it eerie. The looks I got from the folks that were still in town there were like that of hungry wolves noticing a deer straying from the herd. I beat it out of there super fast. Well, as fast as you can on a bicycle.
Wow! I'd be a little nervous riding a bicycle there.
I’ve experienced the same, in Hartford, CT.
@@aircooledhead is Hartford dying/dead too?
@@Frank15982no it’s really safe
We went through on motorcycles at dusk. And we got out of there pretty quick. Weirdest feeling I ever had on a motorcycle.
I was just down there a couple of months ago. I came down from steubenville Ohio ,10 hr drive, to pick up three of my friends who kayak down to there. It took them 29 day to kayak to Cairo.
I also couldn't believe how the town was so empty and decimated.
Your video is great.
Thank you, Jim.
I now know so much about a town I never even heard of. Thank you for saving me a trip there.
The nearby town of Anna has a rather infamous history of being a sundown town (they say it's an acronym for "Ain't No N-words Allowed")--This area of the state was known to have slave owners before the civil war, even though Illinois was technically supposed to be a free state. Southern Illinois truly is like an entirely different state than the area surrounding Chicago. Even as someone who has lived in IL my entire life, I have an extremely hard time relating to the experiences of people in the more rural areas.
Based Anna
Several central Illinous towns whete i live are known to be sundown towns
a lot of the midwest is full of sundown towns like illinois, wisconsin, minnesota, and Missouri. Ill never travel any where down south of chicago again, even up north the racial tensions still exist but not as bad as down south
I’m from Illinois and once you make it close to red bud you’re in danger. That came from a white police officer. I was on my way to Indiana with my brother friend and her car stopped. The police pulled over to help and she told him her uncle was on the way but it was getting dark. He told us we should be happy it stopped where it did because it wasn’t safe if we made it to red bud Illinois. It’s sad to say but I was scared and a lady coming from a revival in Chicago stopped and asked us did we need a ride. They stayed and the lady took me to my car. I now realize how dangerous both situations were because I felt that we weren’t going to make it to Indiana in her car but I went anyway because she had driven her car before. Never again
Still, it looks way, way better than Pine Bluff, AR. I see a lot of potential for future development, particularly in the area of outdoor recreation. And Cairo is ahead of the game by having already demolished a good part of the downtown blight. Likely won't happen in my lifetime, but...under the right conditions...Cairo has a good chance of re-inventing itself as a good place to live.
You can't beat the location. There is a LOT of economic activity on the two rivers.
Ssshhh, Don't tell Everybody.This is where I plan on retiring at someday...God's Country..Southern IL...The Golden Triangle.
I lived in fort Smith Arkansas years ago. Just depressing and nothing there. Hated it.
Yeah when I saw Cairo 33 years ago it looked worse they did clean it up.
Pine Bluff is slowly getting eyes on it though. I always wonder what it would take for people to migrate and build back up one of these dying old towns. Rent is high everywhere and there are plenty of places like this where maybe one's dollar would not only stretch a bit further, but infuse life into a town like this' veins.
This was a very interesting video. I expected Cairo to be far different than it turned out to be. Yes, it is ghostly and there are few businesses. Many houses are abandoned. But I looked really carefully all the while, and there was NO trash. The streets, including the main street, were clean and there was no dumped garbage anywhere. Next to abandoned crumbling houses were well-kept and maintained ones. Every residential street was clean and many yards mowed. The many extremely fancy old houses seemed occupied and well preserved. There were no hoodlums or thug hanging about. The cleanliness of the place amazed me. Compare this to East St. Louis or Camden NJ.
You are right.
Wonder why it's so clean compared to ESL? Different type of residents maybe.
Good observation, you're right.
Totally agree!
Dude, there was no one there to really put trash anywhere.
Thanks for the video, I used to drive a truck through Cairo every few weeks, it was very depressing. I never got off of main street since I drove a truck so I missed all the side streets. The town was a lot dirtier and covered over more with weeds in 2016. Thank You for the tour!
Thank you for watching. :)
I drove thru Cairo this summer. I couldn't believe that a city in the USA could be in such a dilapidated state. It was truly one of the most depressing things I have ever seen. 😔
Well what can you do when only 1,500 people live there any more? That's not a city, it's barely a town.
Many places look like this. Rarely an entire town but if you have visited e.g. Detroits dilapidating corners, you know what I mean. The problem in the US is, that people in need and those who do not bring benefit for the state get left in the the ditch. Europe handles some stuff better than the greatest nation ever.
You should see kc
Not saying Cairo is a healthy town, but, some of the "depressing" look that city folks perceive is just the fact that you are used to businesses getting regular remodels & refurbs, but even in healthy small towns, the buildings won't look so spiffy. Our economies can't scale up like in urban areas, aesthetics have to take a back seat. I was back in NE Montana recently, saw my hometown was thriving again, but heard from tourists who passed thru that it was so depressing and run down. I think a lot of people expect Mayberry, but rural America just cannot afford to prioritize making things look like a movie set. I think a lot of people confuse tourist small towns with regular ones. Small resort towns are super cute but it's mostly a facade.
Go see Parsons Kansas! It's going that same route!
I can’t believe RUclips popped this video up for me.
My late grandmother was born in this townZ in 1926 I never got a chance to see it as I was born in California and raised there.
Totally amazing! To see this
Almost a bit creepy, though, like RUclips somehow knew your grandmother was born there.
@@JoeandNicsRoadTrip tell me about it. Here I am living in England and I wake up and turn on RUclips
Never seen your channel before. And out pops this video!!
Loved it! Sent it to my dad to watch
@@InternationalKarl Awesome! 😀
Thanks for this video. I grew up about 20 miles north of there and Cairo (pronounced Care-Oh) is the county seat of Alexander County. Cairo is a reflection of that general part of Illinois; economically depressed and in terminal decline. As an example, Alexander County had their patrol cars repossessed a number of years ago. While I did not spend a tremendous amount of time in Cairo, I did recognize everything - I've been to Magnolia Manor and my first car came from the Ford dealer there. I was last in Cairo five or six years ago and it was a shock then (I had not been there for the previous twenty years) and the downward spiral, sadly, just keeps going.
Great comment, Jason.
Alot of people who did reside in this area had dependence on farming mining barges and prisons that have been closed down or abandoned. It is unfortunate that this beautiful city is now and for some time now, been forgotten about. I remember doing city work here and there was a awesome little museum in the downtown area with civil war memorabilia and such.
Been to the U.S.S. Cairo museum there.
Crime is rampant. Murder rate high. Drugs are what fuel Cairo now. Everyone I know from Cairo left permanently for higher ground.
If it has been abandoned and forgotten. There is a reason why?
@@maggiemae7539 Mostly politics and corruption.
@@maggiemae7539 A population of 1500 is hardly abandoned. Don't let the headline fool you. Cairo has been in dire straights for decades, but it's not exactly dying off either.
I think it's pretty cool that you posted a video about Cairo Ill ! I lived in Paducah for awhile, and Cairo was one of the "drive through" towns we would go through to get somewhere else. It has some interesting architectural buildings to check out during the day... But.. sadly at night... it's a little bit scary.
It still amazes me how a once prosperous city can be left to rot like this. Great job.
Doesn't amaze me at all. Politicians corrupt tor at least last 80 years.
Sad to see cities and very small rural towns just completely go to ruins. I live in southeastern Arizona in a VERY tiny town of 300 people. Back in the days of the Apache, Chief Cochise was put on a train here. At that time, this town had about 1, 500 people. There are no houses for sale now; the last few houses that were bought sold for $40,000.
I wonder who's buying them if it's declining 🫥
@@asmokingp3005 probably some family who wants to live there for whatever reason, instead of buying to sell it later.
Been through Cairo many times while driving from Springfield, MO to visit family in TN. I love the area and history around Cairo. Thanks for the video!
I'm another Springfield MO resident.
Growing up(in St. Louis), we drove thru Cairo Illinois every year when we went to Kentucky. I had a first hand view of this town slowly dying out to nothing. Have some very cool pictures of the historical areas over the years.
I live about forty min away from Cairo. Besides the race riots and decline in industry, they have also had their wave of corrupt city officials. Swindling money from the residents of this once thriving community and playing favoritism to all of their friends. The Illinois Housing Authority had to come in and close down their federal housing due to misappropriation of funds, but just goes to show how Illinois operates. Misappropriated funds by the city and no oversight by the state. It's a lose-lose situation for all of the residents of Illinois. Such a geographically beautiful state too out shined by its corrupt politics and the headaches that come with it.
Yep
Great comment. And the location of Cairo is just amazing.
I have thought this about Illinois for quite some time. My oldest brother lives in Illinois and from the stories he has told me about businesses and people, etc. Not to mention when you go thru Chicago and areas like that where there are TERRIBLE roads/hwys, that are toll roads that are perpetually under construction, yet perpetually crappy.... It makes you wonder where in the hell all the money goes from the tolls if the roads are NEVER fixed. Plus the seriously high property taxes. It's just terrible being that the state itself is beautiful.
Sounds like Johnstown pa we got lots of redevelopment funds in the past squandered by the time everyone got their money the project was underfunded and you got something that could not benefit the community. We built a convention hall when we had no conventions so now it is called the great hall and one of the cronies runs it and makes lots of money from it . It’s looks like a mini Detroit vacant lots city blocks with one house remaining that someone lives in. I’am still here because I inherited property that i’am now stuck with. Old Victorian homes are very expensive to upkeep and it’s hard putting a new roof or fence up when everything around you is lots full of giant weeds . I mow the grass on an entire city block and i’am getting to old to do this and work over 50 hours a week . After thirty three years on the same job I now make $34,000 a year no money to leave and not enough money to stay 😂😂😂🤯.
Illinois, especially Chicago, is run like the mob. Too many corrupt politicians.
This is an important point in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Jim and Huck pass Cairo in the fog. The original plan was to escape south on the raft and take a steamboat up the Ohio at Cairo. Obviously they miss it in the Fog. Twain wrote the book to this point and then put down the manuscript for many years before moving the story down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
As you say, the Huck Finn river journey is downriver from Jackson Island to Cairo, not upriver as the video mentions.
I drove through Cairo frequently when I worked in Illinois during the mid to late eighties. Although my memory is rather fuzzy I seem to remember it being relatively busy back then with fairly heavy traffic and many nice little shops and restaurants lining the main drag. It's very sad to see how much the town has regressed since then.
My wife's family grew up in Cairo. (Now all a bit north.) We drove through about 10 years ago during a visit to Cape Girardeau, MO...it's just so surreal -- and captured very well in this video.
What a fascinating video! I love videos like this, that show and tell historical and current info without lots of drama & weird music! Thank you for being normal & letting natural sounds just be the background noise!
Thank you for that!
Lord Spoda , so many RUclipsrs think they are enhancing their videos with all the extra sound effects , and often if it’s not done appropriately , it just ruins the videos. Maybe I’m old fashioned, lol, but adding “more” is not always an improvement
Thank you, and I agree. A lot of the times they do flash editing with music, and you really can't gat a grip as to what you're seeing because the images go by so fast. I decided early on to linger on the sights so the viewer can see the area in detail and get a feel for it. I'm glad there's viewers like you who appreciate it. :)
This reminds me of another river city in Illinois, East St. Louis. After the meat packing plants closed in East St Louis it really went down. Nothing but a Hugh depressing dump.
Driving through on a beautiful sunny day. I can only imagine how grim it would be on a cold winters day