Savanna, IL

Savanna sits at the mouth of the Plum River on the Mississippi, and the town grew first from river traffic before the railroads changed its scale. Settlers arrived in 1828, cutting walnut cabins and selling cordwood to passing steamboats. The Plum River Bridge opened in 1855, the Racine & Mississippi Railroad made Savanna a terminal in 1857, and the first train arrived in 1865. A permanent rail bridge to Sabula followed in 1880, bringing depots, roundhouses, warehouses, stockyards, and ice houses. Savanna became a chartered city in 1874, but the old identity is still easy to read: river landing, rail yards, and a long Main Street in Carroll County.