Griggsville Landing, Illinois

Griggsville Landing, Illinois, also known as Phillips Landing or Phillips Ferry is located in Valley City, and was once called Flint.cn|date=November 2007 It is a former town site on the Illinois River in Pike County, Illinois. The town was a steamboat stop which began sometime in the 1830s. There was a lime kiln there that was part of a commercial lime operation prior to post-Civil War industrial intensification in the lime industry. [http://dnr.state.il.us/orep/nrrc/cultural/limeKilns/kilns.htm The Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln at Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area, Pike County, Illinois] , Cultural Resource Program, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Retrieved January 22, 2007.] The town at Griggsville Landing was home to a boat yard, a grist mill and a hotel in addition to the Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln, built around 1850, which is still standing as of 2007. The town was eventually abandoned, rendering it a ghost town.

History

Griggsville Landing was known as Phillips Landing or Phillips Ferry and is located in Valley City. Called Flint until 1878 when the name was changed to Valley City, Illinois is a former town site on the Illinois River in Pike County, Illinois. The town was a steamboat stop which began sometime in the 1830s. There was a lime kiln there that was part of a commercial lime operation prior to post-Civil War industrial intensification in the lime industry. The town at Griggsville Landing was home to a boat yard, a grist mill and a hotel in addition to the Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln, built around 1850, which is still standing as of 2007. The town was eventually abandoned, rendering it a ghost town due in part because of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers constructed levees along the Illinois River leading to flooding of lower elevation settlements along the river. The annual floods as a result of the levees wreaked havoc on Valley City leading to decimation of the town's businesses, abandonment of homes, and the eventual death of the town.

Prior to the levees Valley City was a vibrant river town with an economy based on commercial fishing, transportation of agricultural products such as hogs packed in oak barrels, apples, and cattle to markets in St. Louis and New Orleans, and a host of small businesses including an ice house that harvested ice from the Illinois River each winter packing it in sawdust and delivering ice to residents of Griggsville some four miles east. Sometime in the late 1990s, the last major plant in Valley City, the Tate Cheese Company, closed its doors for good. After Tate Cheese Company abandoned the processing plant in Valley City there was less interest in the remaining buildings adjacent to the plant. People began to permanently abandon their homes after the Great Flood of 1993 that devastated many homes across the Midwest.

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