Shawneetown Bank
Heading home from our Illinois weekend, we stopped at Old Shawneetown where Illinois Route 13 hits the Ohio River. Today, Shawneetown isn’t much to write home about with a population of just 300 and perched precariously below the levee and called Old Shawneetown since the town was moved after the 1937 flood. it doesn’t have much to show of it’s prosperous glory days except for the old bank and boarded up buildings along the levee.
The 1803 visit by Lewis & Clark and its subsequent growth as an early 19th century trade, financial and administrative center. Local lore even suggests that the bank in Shawneetown refused to invest in the new town of Chicago, Illinois because it was too far up a navigable river to be of much use as a trading center. OOPS!
Floods and Westward expansion left the town with little reason for existence except as a stopping point for occasional tourists, hunters or fisherfolk.
Anyway, it is always fun to stop here for a look at the old buildings and to take a stroll along the Ohio. Today, we were able to get to the lower area at river’s edge below the levee and look for some genuine Ohio River driftwood – the 3 large pieces we brought home look pretty much like the Tennessee River driftwood we already had. But I am no authority on driftwood.
