Okawville, IL

Okawville began as Bridgeport in 1838 and took its current name in the 1870s, when German immigrants were farming the surrounding country and opening shops in town. The older Okaw name came from an early name for the Kaskaskia River. The village’s defining local detour is the Original Springs Hotel: the mineral bathhouse began in 1867, burned in 1891, and reopened in the present building in 1893. Heritage House sites, schools, and the spring resort fill out the modern map. Okawville is southern Illinois with German roots, a river name, and a mineral-water story that refused to disappear.