Scales Mound, IL

Scales Mound is a Jo Daviess County village at the northwestern tip of Illinois, with 436 people at the 2020 census. It sits in the Driftless Area near Charles Mound, the highest point in Illinois, and along the Stagecoach Trail about two miles south of the Wisconsin line. Samuel Scales purchased the original village site in 1830 and built a tavern at the base of the mound along the Sucker Trail, an east–west route used by travelers and miners.

ATTRSkye Marthaler / CC BY-SA 3.0

The present village took shape when the Illinois Central Railroad arrived. Track crews laid 20 miles between Scales Mound and Apple River in 1854, and trains were running the line the next day. The railroad made the village a farm-and-mining trade center, while the older stage road kept its place in local memory. Scales Mound's Historic District covers the village's late-19th- and early-20th-century commercial and residential fabric, and the 1885 town hall remains a civic landmark. One K–12 school serves the community, with the Hornets as its mascot, and Stagecoach Trail Days keeps the old route in the current calendar.