Girard, IL

Girard was incorporated in 1855 in northeastern Macoupin County, and its early growth followed the central-Illinois pattern of town streets, a railroad connection, and a coal mine that opened in 1869. The mine closed in 1922, but the old work still helps set the city's scale and its place in the Sangamon River Valley. Illinois Route 4 runs through the center as Third Street, linking Girard south to Carlinville and north toward Springfield while keeping the old route in daily use.

These days, Girard's nearby recreation has a distinctly local arrangement. Sunset Lake lies three and a half miles west and is a private association community built around a 173-acre lake, private roads, a volunteer firehouse, and a shared hall. At the other edge of town, Girard is the southern end of the Sangamon Valley Trail right-of-way, part of a longer rail-trail project planned to connect communities toward Athens. The city carries its coal-and-rail past while its neighbors build new routines around water, trails, and county roads.