1943 Map of Maquon

About this map

The Spoon River meanders through this portion of Knox County, defining a landscape shaped by agricultural drainage and early industrial extraction. During the early 1940s, the region was a crossroads of major rail lines, including the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe and the Chicago Burlington and Quincy, which supported small agrarian hubs like Maquon, Yates City, and Dahinda. The map reveals the early footprint of the Strip Mine in the north and the Knoxville Mine near Court Creek, illustrating the transition toward large-scale surface mining. For local historians, the sheet preserves a dense network of rural infrastructure, from family burial grounds like Van Gilder Cem and Mackey Cem to numerous district schools such as White Oak Sch and Egypt Sch, many of which served dispersed farming communities that have since consolidated.