Appleton is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in Persifer Township, Knox County, Illinois,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Appleton lies approximately one mile north of U.S. Highway 150 and

Interstate 74 Interstate 74 (I-74) is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. Its western end is at an interchange with I-80 in Davenport, Iowa; the eastern end of its Midwest segment is at an interchange with I-75 in ...

. Knox County Highway 12 runs from north to south through Appleton and the tracks of the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

run east to west. Court Creek also flows through Appleton before its confluence with the Spoon River in Dahinda.

History

Appleton was laid out by J. H. Lewis in the spring of 1888, on the S.E. 1-4 of Section 16. It is situated on the north side of the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

and is a station on that road. In the early years of the time, Appleton became known for grain and stock exporting. The site of the original town today is empty except for several streets that served the town. Appleton formerly had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, as well as many homes and businesses but was prone to flooding. The size of the town shrank during much of the 20th century, and the final homes located in the original town were relocated to higher ground after the

Great Flood of 1993 The Great Flood of 1993 (or Great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers Flood of 1993) was a flood that occurred in the Midwestern United States, along the Mississippi River, Mississippi and Missouri River, Missouri rivers and their tributaries, from ...

. A

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respo ...

serves the Appleton area.

References

Ghost towns in Illinois Geography of Knox County, Illinois Populated places established in 1888 {{KnoxCountyIL-geo-stub