Albers, IL

Albers is a Clinton County village laid along Illinois Route 161 and the Southern Railway, about six miles east of Interstate 64 and within the St. Louis region. Its start came with the railroad in the 1860s, when the line reached this point and gave the settlement a name on the map. The village’s history also has an industrial chapter: Monterey Coal Mine No. 2 once operated here, while the local business base earned Albers the old nickname “the biggest little town in Illinois.” Central Community High School reflects a later regional pattern, formed in 1971 through consolidation of the Breese and Aviston high schools. Albers is a rail-and-road village whose German Catholic heritage still shows up in the local story.