At one time, there was a gas station and garage in downtown Elkville, Illinois. Not that there was a whole lot in Elkville to make up a downtown; it’s a small village of fewer than 1,000 people, 300 miles south of Chicago on the mainline of the former Illinois Central Railroad in southern Illinois. The downtown gas station gave way to a Casey’s General Store at the edge of town, and a vacant lot took its place. Eventually, a small gazebo was placed where the gas station once stood.
On December 8, 1999, the gazebo was dressed up for Christmas as a southbound freight came blaring through town. On this date the railroad had been under the flag of the Canadian National Railway for five months, but you wouldn’t know it in this photo. As the new millennium began however, the remnants of the Illinois Central would become fewer and fewer.
One could say that 1999 would be the last Christmas for the Illinois Central.
Mary McPherson – Photograph and text Copyright 2019
A whole lot of small-town America wrapped up in that very short story, from Christmas spirit to getting hollowed out by suburbanization — and even globalization, as the IC main now has ownership in another country. Thank you for sharing the evocative words and photo, Mary.
I imagine Arlo Guthrie rode those rails on the City of New Orleans. Merry Christmas.