Exploring a Ghost Town in Rural Illinois

[deefrost]

The highway department used eminent domain to force out 10 of my neighbors and then 25 years later they never did the exit ramp and then sold the vacant lots and people built new homes. The whole ordeal really pissed my father off because our little neighborhood was like we were all family with our own little school and little store and then our little neighborhood became incorporated into the crap city that consumed other neighborhoods that was once family farms

[elmienliebenberg]

Its creepy but at the same time just plain sad. Those homes once held people who created memories and dreams. But to just have to leave like that, seemingly only with a few posessions and never come back...that is the creepy part..

[alexplore]

Great documentation. This place once operated as a mink farm, but that was a long time ago.

[michaelstephenson]

Passed by the old barn on 94 everyday for 20 years. Was always interested in the story. Watched the Jim Edgar Sign painted on the barn fade over the years. Never knew about the stuff in the woods.

[Dixonyass]

It's going to be a dealership for frieghtliner. I live close by the area. The newer homes were purchased a long while ago. The farm homes were abandoned due to a buy out for i94

[MrEdIsTheSource]

This isn't a ghost town, at most it's a subdivision. I explored some of those places before they cut down the trees, back in early 2022. At the time the house next to the barn appeared to have someone living in there. There was a truck parked next to the house with cameras mounted on the house. After a few months later I returned and the house was ransacked and I explored it along with the two other houses on that dead end road. I wasn't sure about the three houses to the West until all the trees were torn down. Prior to that I think someone was living in the North West and South West houses. Entering the brick house, it was heavily damaged but still smelled like someone lived there recently. The South West one was in pretty good condition. Someone had gone through looking for stuff. Nothing a little cleanup couldn't make right.

[Trome]

This was always the strangest abandoned area to me. I discovered this when driving by on Highway 41 Northbound about a year or 2 ago when they cut down the trees like you mentioned in the video. And then I went back and looked at old Google Maps imagery and realized the neighborhood has been here my entire life. Really sad that we don't really know the story here and it will be interesting to see what is build on this piece of land located between 2 highways.

[kaylee]

I live down the street from this.. always wondered what happened. I did go off roading in my Jeep though there.. lol

[sicilianmina]

❤ what you do. Im from Downers Grove IL and lived in Jersey. Thank you for not having a 70 minute intro❤

[TheFacelessMan]

Idk why but these are so fun to watch. Just found this channel through a random short.

[jonrev]

Oldest buildings to the north predate the oldest aerial imagery I could pull (1930s), house at the 10:00 mark was built in 1941 and sold this past February, and the other homes that had public records were built in the 50s. Been coming here for about a month, saw people smashing windows a week ago so I guess it's downhill from here.

[tomservo]

The Pritzker Machine rolls through another town!!

[dominicdannible]

Did a little digging. The road leading is named for the couple who owned the mink farm. They are buried in mount rest cemetary just on the other side of the peterbuilt building.

[robertclark]

Those molds are for ceramics. You pour "slip" liquid clay in them. Allow to set then is called green ware. You drain excess slip out of mold. Allow to dry. Then you put in kiln to make it turn to ceramic items. I just bought 2000 molds and 2 electric kilns. Wish I would have been around. A lot of the molds companies are out of business.

[cookiecrisp]

This was a mink farm! Have you found anymore information on this?! Seems very mysterious

[incredibleedibledez]

The first barn was a ceramics business. The large green structure was a kiln.

[meliahicks]

Years ago my sister sold "Home Interiors" which was a company name for decorations for your house. The picture that you saw of the little boy kissing the girl on the cheek in the closet upstairs, is from that company. My sister has a bigger version of it. It hung over her fireplace for years, and now it is in her attic. The one in your video is worth about $50 to $75, if it is still in good shape and just needs to be cleaned.

[MichaelKrahulec-fo]

Thanks for putting me to SLEEP! Please make more videos like this and make them B-O-R-I-N-G! I need as much SLEEP as I can get¡

[Halad]

What is the name of the town, or a town it was near? Almost looks like it was destroyed by a tornado.

[IAM_GhosT]

I would assume everything is left due partly because it was old and unwanted and partially because some people were likely forcefully evicted due to the state rather literally taking the land and offering very little money in return thus making it difficult or impossible for the previous tenants to aquire a new home.

A friend of mine once had there house and property taken to expand a highway and they had to fight in court to get anything for there property and home. Moreover they were served eviction papers long before having money to aquire a place to live hence they left a lot of belongings behind.