ILLINOIS: Almost All White Towns In A Diverse State - This Is What They Look Like

With regard to the ubiquity of Dollar General stores, the chain has been very aggressive about placing stores in smaller communities too small to sustain a Walmart or Target store. In some cases the Dollar G is literally the only place in these towns to get groceries without having to go a distance to a full grocery.

I grew up here. Nokomis, specifically. I know all of the towns in this video well - worked at the DQ in Nokomis they drive by, went to the church they drive by.. stepdad was from Pana. Aunt lived in Hillsboro. Had a good friend in Ohlman. Pretty surreal seeing someone taking the time to document all of the stats of these little towns. Sometimes the youtube rabbit hole takes you down some weird paths but never imagined I'd be seeing part of my childhood just laid out there.

Currently living in ,Pana. The town is tearing down most of these buildings. The town is working on revitalizing downtown. Pana will be better soon.

Just goes to show you that poverty looks the same no matter the color. I get so sick of the bigots saying that it's only one group

13:49. That house with the red pickup truck in the driveway used to belong to my Uncle Ned Webster. He lived there until about 1993 when he moved to a 55+ community in the Kissimmee, Florida area. We used to visit him there back in the day and he would throw some wild parties. His parties were known all around the area - even folks from Chicago would show up. Nobody ever caused any problems in town or did any damage to other people's property. I don't recall ever hearing of any fights - everybody would just mellow out and have a good time. I hear he still throws some good parties down in Florida, but the clientele is a little bit older than in the early days.

I absolutely love driving the backroads. Small town USA usually always has me in a good mood.

I live in a cute little town in northwestern IL. Not all of them are dying, in fact we have kids going out, getting their fancy degrees and choosing to come back to raise their families here. Now that working long distance is becoming more of a thing, they can earn a high income and let their kids have a childhood like they had - with freedom and relative safety.

Cool I''m from morrisonville, Ron Lowe was my cousin. Ran that store my whole life. Great person of the community who will be well missed. Thanks for showing all our little towns.

Wow, this is a cool video. I grew up near Pana and now live in Hillsboro. The former used to be much more lively — the building across from Casey’s used to be a Walmart. A lot of the buildings that were downtown have also been torn down to make room for a truck stop. Every time I go there, it makes me sad. Hillsboro, however, is a group effort. Lots of families here are generational (my heritage here dates back centuries) and want to keep the area thriving. It’s more alive now than it has been in the 13 years now that I’ve lived here. Thanks for showcasing our hard work! Hopefully you are able to come back to the area now that it’s warmer and there is even more to see. It’s gorgeous here when all the trees are green.

I grew up in Nokomis. If you've ever seen "That 70's Show", that's about what growing up in the Nokomis was like. I left there a very long time ago and currently living in Florida. Politics and all of our jobs going to other countries is what's causing ghost towns all over America.

Appreciate your conversion into celsius for us foreigners. I hope developers don’t get hold of those beautiful old buildings and ruin their character, but I hope they don’t become ghost towns either. Small town America is uniquely beautiful.

In case this has not already been mentioned. Hillsboro does have an all-male Illinois prison called Graham Correctional Center with an average daily population of around 1900. This would without a doubt skew the stats in regard to the male-female ratio as well as "other races" in an otherwise typical small Illinois town. Prison populations are used in the official stats of a community. This is often used by the local communities in IL especially when they are small. They do this to make a case for financial aid in form of grants and money from the state of IL. So, if Hillsboro has a population of about 5,800 people around 1900 are from the Prison.

The church reminded me of northern Germany. I lived in Mecklenburg for some time where the architectural style ‘red brick Gothic’ (Backsteingotik or Backsteinromanik) influences public buildings everywhere. You could transplant that church and place it in any north German, Dutch or Baltic town and it wouldn’t be out of place. Perhaps there was a strong German presence in that part of Illinois as the town’s community was being established.

I came here after watching several videos of collapsing neighborhoods in Detroit. These Illinois towns look great in comparison.

PAY-nuh. When I was in Pana frequently I believe they're already past their Heyday but I do think that they had a lot of greenhouses that raised a lot of roses at one point. I grant you it's been five years since I've been through pain up but there are really nice parts of that small town that you never showed. Now it is essentially true that downtown's especially in small towns have declined and are declining with some notable exceptions. I live in Northern Illinois and the town of Polo is still pretty decent with their downtown and it's a very small town. The downtown in my city of 15,000 is still pretty decent by comparison as well. I used to live in that area you're in and I'm surprised you didn't go to Taylorville because while it's a small town and while it has its issues it's a lot better off in the downtown really is not too bad the last time I was there. If I remember correctly I believe there was part of the Unser family that lived on the corner near my grade school St Thomas in Decatur, IL when I was attending there as a wee lad. If you want to see a larger town that has really fallen from Grace from its heyday go through Decatur Illinois. So sad.

Thank you , Mr. Spoda, I just discovered you on UTube several days ago. My family moved to Texas from Illinois ( wait for it) in 1949. My grandmother’s family moved to Pana , Christian Co in 1849 or so f Springfield. I learned this through genealogy. Grandma spoke about living in Pana, but I never had a chance to see it. You have made a older senior very happy. Thank you again…PS I’ll be watching all you future and past UTubes as I enjoy your easy explanations and driving stories .

I appreciate the fact that you just lay out the facts on these places without being judgmental. It’s important to document these towns in their current state

I’m a ‘Down Under Aussie’ & I find your taking me on this tour so good!! Thankyou for showing me a small part of USA, can’t wait to see more 😃

I think you need to interview people who live there. They have their daily life activities, work, hobbies, holidays, social activities etc.

Thanks for making these videos, they're very helpful to folks looking for places to relocate to or avoid altogether.