HISTORY · ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE
Millville, Illinois
History
Millville was an early settlement in northwestern Illinois at the meeting of the Apple River and South Fork Apple River, now buried within Apple River Canyon State Park. Established in 1835 on the Chicago-Galena stagecoach route, it grew into an important rural civic and commercial center between 1838 and 1853, with mills, shops, and a tavern serving a small but active population. Though bypassed by railroads in the 1850s, it lingered as a minor local center until June 1892, when floodwaters from a failed dam swept away the remaining buildings. Archaeological remains preserve evidence of everyday life in a nineteenth-century stagecoach town.
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Apple River, Illinois
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