Recognizing mines on Route 66

 

A steel silhouette of a coal miner and donkey outside the Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum in Godley, Illinois, symbolizes how miners and their animals worked difficult days and nights to carry coal from underground.

Godley, Illinois, was a coal mining town on Route 66.

The Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum opened in 2011 and tells the story of coal mining in Route 66 communities like Godley.

Godley’s population of nearly 500 people in the 1880s dropped to about 50 when the mines closed in the 1890s, according to the Godley Public Water District’s website.

“The town consisted of a store, over 18 taverns and about 8 houses of ill repute,” says the Godley Public Water District.

The Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum documents some of mining towns’ lifestyles.

More information is available here.