Illinois Route 116 - Related Route

Related Route

Illinois Route 97A was a short rural spur (state maintained) that ran from U.S. Route 124 (now IL 116) south of Media south to the community of Raritan, Illinois.

• 1937 IL-97A was a spur off the current IL-116, Media to Raritan. This 1924 route designation was dropped.

• 1938 - US Route 124 was decommissioned and changed to Illinois 116 as an extension of that route in east central Illinois. Illinois 116 was a popular agricultural and commercial truck route from Burlington, Iowa (on the Mississippi River) to Peoria, Illinois (on the Illinois River) during World War II and through the late 1960s. This was due to: U.S. Army ammunitions arsenal at Burlington, active strip mining of coal in Fulton County (largely south of route); farm livestock traffic to the Peoria stockyards and grain transport (corn and soybeans) to Illinois or Mississippi barge terminals.