The Route 66 town of Elkhart, Ill., learned this week that its only school — an elementary one — would be shut down after the end of the school year, according to the Lincoln Courier.
The school has just 66 students and has been suffering from poor finances. The students will be sent to Mount Pulaski, which has a consolidation agreement with the Elkhart.
Elkhart’s high school closed back in 1974 and recently closed down the junior-high portion of its school.
Elkhart was trying like heck to spur economic development in town, mostly as a way to keep its school. A bigger tax base and more residents certainly would have helped. But apparently the efforts were started too late and made too little impact.
This isn’t so much like an “Our Town” situation seen in the movie “Cars.” Being a native of a small rural Illinois town, I can attest that the populations of all small towns in rural Illinois are declining unless they’re close to a significant-sized city.
In essense, rural Illinois is much like the Great Plains: If the population trends continue, in a few decades large swaths of Illinois will be nearly as deserted as they were in 1700s.
my mothers family is originally from ILL (hanner) I sometimes wonder if i might just end up in some sleepy little town in ILL. ( I THINK i WOULD LOVE IT) here in communist ca. , crime and improper urban sprawl is through the roof ! after viewing movies like “RED DAWN” ,” ROAD WARRIOR”, ” CARS” “BACK TO THE FUTURE” ECT ECT i think small town nowhere is just what i want ! i.e. land is cheap , crime and population is low ; and ……….. ah …well you can ride all darn day across the country side (with a gun ) and nobody wants to put you in jail !! . I am thinking that some of these small little towns in ILL. might just help themselves out of economic decline if they promoted things in there respective countys that would appeal to freedom lovers like myself here in ca. up until about the early 1980,s ca. was a cool place to live . but not now . with sooooooo much population most of the countys in ca. have restricted hunting, shooting and rural riding to the point of almost outlawing it . i have talked to a great number of goood american folks here in ca. who want to move out of this blankity -blank state. most of them have told me about dreams of small town america. so whats up ILL. LET’S NETWORK ………………………………………………………….. THANKS