2024 Map of Moriah

About this map

Moriah sits at the center of this rural Illinois landscape, where the agricultural grid is interrupted by the winding corridors of the North Fork Embarras River and Mount Branch. This modern survey highlights a region defined by its small, traditional settlements and numerous family and community burial grounds, such as Restitution Cem and Baughman Cem. The geography is notably shaped by the tri-county junction of Clark, Jasper, and Crawford counties, which meet near the village of Bellair. In the eastern reaches, the oddly named Moonshine and Hogue Town represent the enduring local place-names of the Illinois prairie. The terrain features a distinctive ridge known as Backbone, which rises above the surrounding river bottoms and is marked by its own Backbone Cem. These features, along with a network of local roads like Co Hwy 26 and Co Hwy 2, illustrate a landscape that has maintained its rural character and genealogical heritage well into the twenty-first century.