Vienna, IL

Vienna is the Johnson County seat in southern Illinois, a small city laid out before the railroad era and now known for the Tunnel Hill State Trail. The county seat has been here since 1818, and the city was incorporated as a village in 1837 before becoming a city in 1893. Vienna's name does not come from Austria's capital; it belongs to an older local naming story. U.S. 146 and Illinois 37 make the courthouse town a practical stop between the Shawnee country and the Ohio River side of the state.

ATTRBubba73 / CC BY-SA 4.0

The trail is Vienna's biggest modern calling card. The former railroad grade runs through town and south toward Tunnel Hill, with wetlands, trestles, bluffs, and the famous tunnel built into the ride. Vienna Grade School and Vienna High School keep the town's school life close, while Shawnee Community College and Southern Illinois University Carbondale sit within the wider education orbit. Cyclists arrive for the trail, but downtown still works as a county-seat service center. Vienna's local scoop is that a courthouse town with an early-1800s name now doubles as one of southern Illinois's best trailheads.