Sumner, IL

Sumner is a Lawrence County city of 2,631 residents in the 2020 census, with roughly 2,000 of that count living at Lawrence Correctional Center. The city began as a stop on the Ohio and Mississippi Railway in the early 1850s. A post office opened in 1852 under the name Black Jack, then the city was renamed Sumner in 1855 for early settler Benjamin Sumner. Illinois Route 250 runs through town just south of U.S. 50.

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Red Hills State Park sits northeast of Sumner, spreading across 967 acres of wooded hills, ravines, meadows, springs, and a 40-acre lake. The park offers hiking, camping, boating, fishing, equestrian and bike trails, and a campground with more than 100 sites. That landscape gives Sumner a strong outdoor side alongside the correctional center and its rail-era streets. The park also hosts Veterans' Point. A short drive from Sumner takes residents from town blocks to the high point between St. Louis and Cincinnati, with Red Hills supplying the bigger horizon.