Driving Around Small Village Bath, IL in 4k Video

Filmed on Sunday, April 2, 2023, I drive around the small town Bath, Illinois to see what's going on.

Bath is a village in Mason County, Illinois, United States. The population was 279 at the 2020 census.

Bath is in southwestern Mason County, on a low bluff overlooking the Illinois River valley to the west.

The town of Bath, Illinois was settled in 1828 by John Stewart and John Gillespie, soon to be followed by other Kentuckians. Abraham Lincoln surveyed the town in 1836.

The second house and first mansion, a two-story red brick Italianate four-square, was built by Major Benjamin H. Gatton in the 1840s. The town name is said to have originated with some English settlers, who thought the area looked like the land around Bath, England.

Bath was the Mason County seat from 1843 to 1851. The town was the site of one of Abraham Lincoln's "a house divided...cannot stand" speeches in 1858.

The industries of musseling, button-cutting, duck hunting and fishing caused the town's population to swell to more than 1,000 during the first decade of the twentieth century. Fishing became the largest industry in Bath, on the Sangamon and Illinois Rivers, and Wilcox Lake and Cuba Island. Trucks came from as far as Chicago and Louisville, Kentucky, to pick up fish. Seine fishing continued through the 1950s, as the fish population waned. In 1953 a two-day seine yielded 40,000 pounds of carp and buffalo that were sold locally and in St. Louis.

Bath was a stop of the showboats until 1927. The Goldenrod, Cotton Blossom, Frenches' New Sensation, and the Majestic brought entertainment to the small town.

Bath is host to the annual midsummer Redneck Fishing Tournament.

As of the census of 2000, there were 310 people, 130 households, and 86 families residing in the village.

The median income for a household in the village was $30,208, and the median income for a family was $31,875. Males had a median income of $27,250 versus $18,750 for females. The per capita income for the village was $10,262. About 22.2% of families and 24.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.7% of those under the age of eighteen and 3.2% of those 65 or over.

The racial makeup of the village was 96.45% White, 0.32% African American, 0.97% Native American, and 2.26% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.32% of the population. #driving #travel #drivingtour