Lanark, IL

Lanark is a Carroll County city laid out in 1861 under the direction of Daniel W. Dame, who purchased 500 acres with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad behind the new settlement. The name came from Lanark in Scotland, and the railroad gave the town its original connection to the wider Midwest. Early twentieth-century Lanark also had an unusual industrial chapter: the Cotta steam car company built vehicles here, a detail that still separates the town’s history from a standard farm-and-railroad story.

ATTRDavid Wilson / CC BY 2.0

Today, Lanark’s practical map centers on its tree-lined streets, historic downtown, Eastland Junior-Senior High School, city government, and the roads toward Shannon, Lake Carroll, and the Mississippi River. Eastland Community Unit School District 308 serves the area, and the Eastland Cougars tie Lanark and nearby communities together through school life and athletics. The city remains surrounded by Carroll County farmland, but its old rail grid and former steam-car works give the streets a distinctly industrial memory. Lanark’s local scoop is the combination of Scottish name, railroad town, and home-built automobile past.