Carrier Mills, Illinois

Carrier Mills, Illinois

Carrier Mills, formerly Carriers Mills and Morrilsville, also known as Catskin, is a village in Saline County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,886 at the 2000 census. Carrier Mills was named after George Washington Carrier and his saw and grist mill, and was one of the early Cairo and Vincennes Railroad boomtowns. Carrier Mills has lost 44% of its population since the 1920 census high of 2,943. The village has a large African American population at 13%, compared to neighboring communities in the region, due to migration from the nearby community of Lakeview.

The city has been nicknamed "Catskin" due to both an abundance of stray cats in town, and a late-19th century story of the first local merchandise and liquor store owner, Wes Cole, who was tricked by local kids into thinking a skinned cat hide was a mink stole in trade for a jug of whiskey. To this day Carrier Mills is host to the annual Catskin Days town fair and parade. The township's school mascot is the Wildcat.

Carrier Mills is included in the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area and is the third largest community in the Harrisburg Micropolitan Statistical Area outside of Eldorado and Harrisburg.

Read more about Carrier Mills, Illinois:  Geography, Demographics, History, Downtown Demolition, Lakeview: A Link To African American Culture, Carrier Mills Archaeological Project of 1978

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