Argenta, IL

In 2020, Argenta had 913 residents in Friends Creek Township, Macon County, about 13 miles northeast of Decatur. The village took shape when the railroad came through: Russell B. Rodgers platted it in 1873 as the Decatur, Monticello and Champaign line was built. Railroad officials Smith and Wood reportedly supplied the name Argenta, a word associated with silver. A first store, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, schoolhouse, and later village hall followed the tracks, giving Argenta the usual bones of an Illinois rail settlement without losing its farm-country setting.

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Friends Creek crosses the east side of town and feeds toward the Sangamon River, while Illinois Route 48 carries traffic along the village’s southeast side. Argenta was incorporated in 1873 and is part of Argenta-Oreana Community Unit School District 1. The town’s current calendar includes village events and the Argenta-Oreana pageant, and the surrounding fields still make the railroad-era layout easy to see. Decatur is the nearby larger center, but Argenta keeps its own name, school district, creek, and small-town street plan.