Stockton, IL

Stockton is Jo Daviess County's youngest village, built after the Minnesota Northwestern Railroad chose a station site in Stockton Township in 1886. The line later became part of the Chicago Great Western, and Stockton incorporated in 1890. The rails were removed in the early 1970s, but the town still carries that railroad beginning in its streets, depot-era blocks, and location on U.S. 20 between Freeport and Galena. It is also where the glaciated ground gives way to the rolling edge of the Driftless Area.

ATTRIvoShandor / CC BY-SA 3.0

The second chapter is cheese. J.L. Kraft opened a cheese plant and creamery in Stockton in 1914, using the local dairy country and the railroad's freight connection; the plant is now operated by Brewster Cheese and still produces Swiss cheese. Downtown adds Queen Anne-era buildings, the White Building on the National Register, a museum, and a public park. Stockton is a village that changed from rail stop to dairy-processing town without losing the high, open country around it. The local giveaway is the combination of cheese, old storefronts, and a road that climbs toward the unglaciated hills.