Pope County, Illinois

Pope County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Golconda
Year Organized: 1816
Square Miles: 371

Court House:

310 E. Main Street
County Courthouse
Golconda, IL 62938-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Nathaniel Pope, first territorial Secretary of State (1809-16).

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Pope County was created on January 10, 1816 (Territorial Laws, 1815-1816, p. 66) and was formed from Gallatin and Johnson Counties. Present area, or parts of it, formerly included in: Gallatin County (1812–1816), Randolph County (1801–1812), Johnson County (1812–1816) and Knox, Northwest Territory (1790–1801).

The County was named for Nathaniel Pope, first Territorial Secretary of State (1809–1816), and last Territorial Delegate to Congress from Illinois.. The County Seat is Golconda. Prior County Seats was Sarahsville—Name changed to Golconda on June 24, 1817 (1816–1817) and Golconda (1817–Present).

Geography

The entire county is hilly and during rainy weather rivulets cascade down the hills in the park forming waterfalls of varying sizes and heights. The county contains Dixon Springs State Park, one of many state parks in the Illinois Shawnee Hills, and is part of the Shawnee National Forest. It is bordered to the south and east by the Ohio River, which marks the state's border with Kentucky.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 375 square miles (970 km²), of which, 371 square miles (961 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (10 km²) of it (1.01%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Saline County
Northeast: Hardin County
Southeast: Livingston County, Ky.
Southwest: Massac County
West: Johnson County
Northwest: Williamson County

Cities and Towns:

- Eddyville	village	Incorporated Area
- Golconda (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."