Mount Pulaski, IL

Mount Pulaski is a Logan County city near the geographic center of Illinois, perched on a glacial ridge. The 2020 census counted 1,537 residents. Mount Pulaski Community Unit School District 23 serves local students, and the city’s public square is anchored by the Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site. The courthouse, school, local businesses, and farm roads give the city a civic center that is easy to find on the surrounding prairie.

ATTRformulanone from Huntsville, United States / CC BY-SA 2.0

The city was founded in 1836 by Jabez Capps, George Turley, and Dr. Barton Robinson, who named it for Polish Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski. The brick courthouse was built in 1848 and served as Logan County’s seat until 1855. Abraham Lincoln regularly argued cases in its second-floor courtroom while traveling the Eighth Judicial Circuit. After the county seat moved to Lincoln, the building became a city hall, school, and post office before restoration turned it into a state historic site. Mount Pulaski still revolves around that courthouse square and the layers of local government, law, and school life gathered around it.