Grand Tower is a city in Jackson County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The population was 479 at the 2020 census. The town gets its name from Tower Rock, a landmark island in the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

History

Former names of this town include ''La Tour'' ("The Tower"), Jenkins Landing, Cochran's Woodyard Landing, and Evans' Landing. The earliest inhabitants were a band of river pirates, who settled here after being driven off Spanish soil west of the

, near the pirate ambush spot of Tower Rock. This

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

settlement was destroyed by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat wi ...

s in 1803. A subsequent settler was a man named Walker, who is the namesake of Walker Hill. Severe flooding struck the town in 1947.

Geography

Grand Tower is located in southwestern Jackson County and is bordered to the west by the Mississippi River, which forms the

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

–Illinois boundary. The northern edge of the city borders Shawnee National Forest. Illinois Route 3 runs through an eastern extension of the city limits, leading north (upriver) to

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, where the Chester Bridge crosses the Mississippi, and south to Illinois Route 146, which crosses the Mississippi to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. There are no other road bridges over the Mississippi closer to Grand Tower. According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Grand Tower has a total area of , of which (or 99.76%) is land and (or 0.24%) is water. Immediately to the south of the city is a small portion of Perry County, Missouri, which is known as " Grand Tower Island". The island's sole road connection terminates in Grand Tower. The Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge connects a natural gas pipeline across the Mississippi River between Wittenberg, Missouri and Grand Tower.

Economy

The Grand Tower Energy Center is a 478 megawatt combined cycle gas-fired facility which produces power for the region. It is owned by Ameren Energy Generating Company, or Genco.

Community

Shawnee Elementary School, North - Once a public school, now (since 2015) a private residence. A local post office with zip code 62942 provides mail service. Four churches, the First United Presbyterian Church, the Grand Tower United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, and Light House Christian Assembly Church offer religious services. A work of levees protects the community from flooding when the Mississippi River water levels rise. The Devil's Backbone Park, named after a limestone ridge which created a natural bottleneck in the Mississippi River, provided easy opportunity for river pirates to attack

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...

s and barges. This park provides RV camping, playgrounds, picnic facilities, and a shower house.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 479 people, 220 households, and 135 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 263 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.57%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.21%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.00% Native American, 0.00% Asian, 0.00%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.63% from other races, and 4.59% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.46% of the population. There were 220 households, out of which 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.27% were married couples living together, 10.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.64% were non-families. 21.82% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.09% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.21 and the average family size was 2.68. The city's age distribution consisted of 22.9% under the age of 18, 13.9% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 115.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 112.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $48,500, and the median income for a family was $56,250. Males had a median income of $40,781 versus $21,136 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $20,423. About 5.2% of families and 13.0% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 17.4% of those under age 18 and 21.3% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* Christine Brewer, opera singer * Ike Morgan, illustrator

Popular culture

* The novel ''The River Between Us'', written by Richard Peck, was set in Grand Tower.

Gallery

File:Grand Tower, Illinois, United Methodist Church.jpg, United Methodist Church File:Grand Tower, Illinois, First United Presbyterian Church.jpg, First United Presbyterian Church File:Grand Tower Energy Center, near Grand Tower, Illinois along the Mississippi River from Illinois highway 157.JPG, Grand Tower Energy Center

References

External links

History of Grand TowerGrand Tower, Illinois History
at prairieghosts.com {{authority control Cities in Illinois Illinois populated places on the Mississippi River Cities in Jackson County, Illinois