Cairo

Cairo, city, seat (1860) of Alexander county, extreme southern Illinois, U.S. The city stands on a low-lying delta at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Bridges over both rivers connect the city with Kentucky (east) and Missouri (west). Cairo was so named because its site was thought to resemble that of the Egyptian city (see Cairo), and southern Illinois consequently became known as Little Egypt.

Cairo and the Bank of Cairo were chartered in 1818, when there was no settlement and there were no depositors. A second and successful attempt at establishing a town was made in 1836–37 by the Cairo City and Canal Company, which built a large levee that encircled the city; however, the settlement collapsed in 1840. Cairo was visited in 1842 by Charles Dickens, who was not impressed and made it the prototype for the nightmare City of Eden in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44). In 1846, 10,000 acres (4,000 hectares) of the site were purchased by the trustees of the Cairo City Property Trust, a group of Eastern investors who were interested in making the town the terminus of the projected Illinois Central Railroad; the railroad arrived in 1855. A city charter was obtained in 1857, and Cairo flourished as trade with Chicago spurred development. Cairo was headquarters for General Ulysses S. Grant during the western campaigns of the American Civil War. Grant’s presence forced much of the city’s trade to be diverted to Chicago. Cairo failed to regain much of the trade lost during the war, and agriculture and lumber and sawmills subsequently came to dominate the economy. The city was protected by its levees from destruction when the Ohio River rose to record heights during the 1937 flood. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Cairo was the scene of racial strife, and it fell into a serious decline thereafter.

Local industries include the production of pulp and paper and the manufacture of polyurethane foam and pet products. Notable attractions include the Custom House (1872), which is now a local museum, and the mansions along “Millionaire’s Row,” including Magnolia Manor (1869), a five-story Italianate building. Fort Defiance State Park, site of the Civil War garrison, is just south; Mound City National Cemetery, just north of Cairo, contains thousands of Civil War graves. Horseshoe Lake Conservation Area and Shawnee National Forest are northwest of the city. Inc. 1818; reinc. 1857. Pop. (2000) 3,632; (2010) 2,831.