Illinois Highway 37 strings through five counties in southern Illinois. Without stopping to see the sights – not that any sights actually exist for the casual tourist – traversing its entire length would barely require a full afternoon. Yet despite its short stature and modest dress, IL37 reveals a distinctly American scene, utterly hidden from the featureless interstate 57 humming just to the west within constant sight of 37.
IL37 (map data copyright Google, INEGI 2018)
On its north side, highway 37 is all “corn and beans” – feed corn and soy beans. Crop fields blanket the landscape both left and right, broken at intervals by towns like Watson, Farina and Alma. These hamlets announce themselves by their ten and fifteen story grain elevators – giant silos – standing against the sky and wedged between the road and the train line that runs like a shadow alongside the highway. These towns are small – an addition of two or three families to any of them would bump the population by a double digit percentage – and devoted entirely to agricultural support (assuming, of course, that feeding and watering the agricultural workers themselves counts as agricultural support).
Grain Elevators, Farina, IL
In the middle of it all – thematically if not exactly geographically – sits Mount Vernon, the major population center of the highway with roughly 20,000 residents. The little city is visibly multi-racial and economically stratified, reflecting larger America. Also reflective of the greater American experience, Mount Vernon and the other towns dotting IL37 struggle with drug addiction.
South of Mount Vernon, the inescapable corn and bean fields the north dwindle to near zero, replaced by various low tech industry, services aimed at travelers of the neighboring interstate, and a high security state penitentiary.
Big Muddy Correctional Center, Ina, IL
In both the north and the south ends, mobile homes and bungalows dominate the smaller communities, with as much housing seemingly dilapidated or abandoned as in good repair and occupied. The larger population centers, such as Mount Vernon and Salem, also display hints of middle class, almost suburban, neighborhoods as well.
Mobile Home, Marion, IL
The complete photo journal covering IL37 can be found here.