Cairo Info (Chicago, Pana, Louisville: agriculture, train, cities)

[drro]

Originally Posted by dcisive

there are tons of well done documentaries regarding Cairo back in the late 1800's and early 20th century when it was a tremendous thriving town for business, theater and more. Almost hard to believe it just decayed. Indeed racism hastened it's complete demise in the 1960's. A very sad but true situation. I remember when I was attending SIU in 72 it was hitting the skids big time with racial tensions and unrest causing the whites to head out altogether. A bit like what happened to the South Side of Chicago. I turned 13 and we moved and within several years after it was "white flight" at its heaviest and now the former neighborhood (Jeffrey Manor) is a drug/gang ridden mess with shootings on a regular basis.

Was it ever thriving? Already in the mid 1800's it had a reputation apparently. According to Wikipedia: "Charles Dickens visited Cairo in 1842, and was unimpressed.[4] The city would serve as his prototype for the nightmare City of Eden in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit".

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by karlsch

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants the state to spend $40 million to develop a river port in Cairo, where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet.

The rest of the story: https://wrex.com/2020/02/28/governor...port-in-cairo/

That would be a large-scale economic stimulus for the area if approved- just in the last 9 years the area lost 30% of its population.

[LeotheOrangeCat]

Originally Posted by drro

Was it ever thriving? Already in the mid 1800's it had a reputation apparently. According to Wikipedia: "Charles Dickens visited Cairo in 1842, and was unimpressed.[4] The city would serve as his prototype for the nightmare City of Eden in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit".

It was a river town based river commerce. I doubt Dickens would have been impressed. It was doing ok economically until railroads took more freight traffic from the rivers.

[atler8]

Originally Posted by LeotheOrangeCat

It was a river town based river commerce. I doubt Dickens would have been impressed. It was doing ok economically until railroads took more freight traffic from the rivers.

It seems apparent that you are correct in your view of Dickens's opinion of Cairo. Even at it's high point, Cairo would have fared badly in comparison to the might of the London of the 1840's.

As is the case with Cairo, Il., many other American river cities, both large & small, have also declined or at least significantly lost their original river-based economic might &/or population.

The Mississippi River is lined with the remains of what were often these "brief, shiny objects", so to speak in terms of their brief periods of booming population & prosperity. Whether fueled by the shipping of cotton, or timber or lead or general agriculture, each of them swelled until the bubble burst whatever the reasons(s) for that may have been.

Some still relatively large American cities that today are nowhere near as important on a national level as they once were in the 1800's, think of St. Louis, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Memphis & Louisville, for example.

Cairo is just a particularly desperately poor and tiny shell of it's former self & a place that has become synonymous with economic decay & dislocation.

[drro]

Did anybody ever go visit it to see what the fuss is all about? I'm planning on doing a rust-belt tour in the next few years and wonder if Cairo would be worth visiting, and especially if it would be safe to do so.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by drro

Did anybody ever go visit it to see what the fuss is all about? I'm planning on doing a rust-belt tour in the next few years and wonder if Cairo would be worth visiting, and especially if it would be safe to do so.

I was there in May 2018.

The fuss is in its location and history. To call it a shell of its former self would be a vast overstatement. It's not even that.

That being said, there were a fair amount of people milling about, and people I spoke with were very nice. The river joining spot is to be seen, at the very least.

[drro]

Originally Posted by Count David

I was there in May 2018.

The fuss is in its location and history. To call it a shell of its former self would be a vast overstatement. It's not even that.

That being said, there were a fair amount of people milling about, and people I spoke with were very nice. The river joining spot is to be seen, at the very least.

Thanks, it's good to hear that Cairo is safe to visit. In addition to visiting there where the Ohio meets the Mississippi, its history seems interesting as well. I heard Cairo pretty much got stuck in the 1920's, I can hardly think of another place like that.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by drro

Thanks, it's good to hear that Cairo is safe to visit. In addition to visiting there where the Ohio meets the Mississippi, its history seems interesting as well. I heard Cairo pretty much got stuck in the 1920's, I can hardly think of another place like that.

Yes, in a way it looks as though it has hardly been maintained since then either. It is safe to visit, just very poor. That being said, Wickliffe, KY just across the river might as well be another world.

[1greatcity]

Originally Posted by drro

Thanks, it's good to hear that Cairo is safe to visit. In addition to visiting there where the Ohio meets the Mississippi, its history seems interesting as well. I heard Cairo pretty much got stuck in the 1920's, I can hardly think of another place like that.

It may look like it’s stuck in the 1920’s, but the reality is even worse. Cairo’s population has now fallen below the 1860 census figure of 2188 persons. The town is quickly disappearing.

[Bitey]

There's been nothing quick about it, the town has been fading away for a century now. The amazing thing isn't that it's down to 2,000 people but that there's still 2,000 people left.