West City

Spending the night in Benton, IL. After checking into the hotel, I took a stroll around the small town. There were interesting landmarks.

The police office has old fashion globe lamps out front with Police written on them.

There is a sign commemorating the visit of George Harrison’s first visit to the US.

There was a bench in the town square with a book reader statue.

The town historical society had a canon from WW1 ( no signage so I will do a bit of research), a monument to men from the town who died during the civil war, and the last hanging in Illinois.

And finally, the federal building with anti car barricades out front. The obviously think anyone that wants to run a vehicle into the building is too dumb to think to run it into the side of the building where there are no barricades. They may be right.

I can not say it is a cute town, but it has not died. As the county seat, it continues to live on. There are a fair number of vacant properties, but for the most part, businesses seam to survive.Read more