Thomson, IL

Thomson is a Carroll County village on Illinois Route 84, about a mile east of the Mississippi River. That puts it on the Great River Road, but the local map is more than a road trip: the Thomson Causeway launches the Great River Trail, which runs over 20 miles toward Albany. The village's school history goes back to a one-room York Community School begun in 1865, while Schafer Fisheries gives the place an unexpected December tradition, processing carp for Polish Christmas tables. Thomson is a small river-edge town where trail miles, school memories, and working water-country habits sit side by side.