Griggsville Landing, Illinois Ghost Town: History, Status and Directions

Overview

A river crossing the railroad passed by

Griggsville Landing sat at the foot of the bluffs on the west bank of the Illinois River, in Pike County's Flint Township. It began in 1822, when Garrett Van Dusen started ferrying travelers across the river by canoe while their horses swam. He sold out to Nimrod Phillips, and by 1832 the crossing was Phillips' Ferry. The road to it, the historian Juliet Walker wrote, remained the most traveled east-west route in the county until the railroads came. Hyrum Smith's family crossed here on the way to Missouri.

From the 1830s steamboats called. The landing, named for the town of Griggsville a few miles west, had a warehouse where farmers and merchants shipped their goods, a boat yard, a hotel and a grist mill. Captain Samuel Rider built boats here, among them the horse-powered Olitippa in 1844. In the 1850s someone built a stone lime kiln into the bluff half a mile to the south and burned limestone from the bluff above it.

The railroad ended it. Lines reached Pike County in the 1860s and 1870s, and in 1877 Valley City was laid out half a mile north, where the tracks crossed the river. It took the landing's trade, though steamboats still stopped into the 1930s. The sources don't agree on the names: Wikipedia calls Griggsville Landing the same place as Phillips Ferry, while a 1906 county history puts Phillips' Ferry at the present site of Valley City. Today the land belongs to the Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area, and the kiln is what's left.

Timeline

Canoe ferry to wildlife area

**The 1924 USGS Griggsville sheet: Valley City at the bridge, with buildings strung along the river road to the south** · Map: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain

1817–1819The federal government surveys Pike County.
1822Garrett Van Dusen, the second settler in Flint Township, starts a ferry across the Illinois River, carrying people by canoe while horses swim.
Sep 1827Judge William Thomas crosses on Van Deusen's ferry, as he recalled in an 1873 letter.
By 1832Van Dusen has sold the ferry and his claim to Nimrod Phillips, and the crossing is known as Phillips' Ferry. Hyrum Smith's family uses it during the Mormon migration to Missouri; the sources we read don't give the year.
1830sA steamboat landing grows up with a warehouse, a boat yard, a hotel and a grist mill.
1844Captain Samuel Rider builds the Olitippa here, a horse-powered boat for carrying freight in low water. He also builds the steamboats Timolian and Prairie State there.
Mid-1850sA stone lime kiln is built into the bluff about half a mile south of the landing. James Hutchinson buys the property in 1854.
1860s–1870sRailroads reach Pike County and river trade falls off. By 1870 only four steamboats make regular runs between Peoria and St. Louis.
1872The county atlas marks a blacksmith shop at the kiln site. The kiln has closed.
1877Valley City is platted half a mile north, where the railroad crosses the river, and takes the landing's trade.
1930sSteamboats stop calling.
1970–1995The state buys 860 acres for hunting in 1970, adds 280 acres in 1988 and names the area for Ray Norbut in 1995.
Aug 30, 1999The Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

What's left

A kiln in the bluff

Nothing of the village stands. Its one survivor is the Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln, which the Illinois DNR calls one of the best preserved periodic lime kilns in the state. It is a bottle-shaped stone shaft dug into the bluff, 13 feet across inside, with walls about three feet thick that rise 17 feet above the rubble, laid dry or with mud mortar. Limestone quarried from the bluff above went in at the top with hardwood below, burned for about 72 hours and cooled for 12, and the lime was raked out at the base into barrels. Local tradition says the English stonemason William Hobson used its lime for houses, barns and stone bridges. By 1872 the county atlas showed a blacksmith shop on the site.

A marker stands across the road from the kiln on 470th Street, 0.3 mile north of 290th Avenue, by the HMdb entry. The entry, with photos from 2019, notes that the kiln is hard to see in the warm months because of overgrowth. The marker puts the steamboat landing half a mile north of the kiln, and so does the DNR. Wikipedia's kiln article instead puts the landing a quarter mile south of the kiln, with kiln coordinates north of the townsite point.

The 1980 and 1998 USGS Griggsville sheets, in the historic maps below, label Griggsville Landing below the bluff, with a few buildings, a boat ramp and, just south of the mouth of Church Hollow, a quarry in the bluff. The 1998 sheet adds I-72 crossing the river to the southeast. Today's map shows the road 3725 East running along the foot of the bluff between Valley City and Church Hollow.

Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln (mid-1850s)
Lime kiln marker
Bluff quarry above the kiln
Village site along 3725 East

USGS topographic map of the Illinois River below Valley City, with the road 3725 East along the bluff, Church Hollow and I-72 — **USGS The National Map, topo.** Valley City is at the top and Church Hollow at the center. The road 3725 East follows the foot of the bluff beside the river.

Aerial view of a wooded bluff and a road along the Illinois River, with farm fields across the water — **Aerial imagery, closer in.** The road runs along the foot of the wooded bluff beside the river; the levee and fields are across the water.

Historic maps

Griggsville Landing on USGS maps, 1924–1998

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Griggsville Landing, 1924 — **Griggsville sheet, 1924, 1:62,500** · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Pittsfield, the county seat, is the nearest city, about 29 minutes away through Griggsville. From Springfield the drive is I-72 west to exit 35, then IL 107 into Griggsville. Both routes end on 3725 East at the mapped townsite. The kiln marker is about half a mile south; the HMdb entry places it on 470th Street, 0.3 mile north of 290th Avenue, the road of the site office. The routes come from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.

USGS topographic map between Pittsfield and Griggsville Landing with the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Pittsfield13.5 miabout 29 min

From East Adams Street, turn right on North Madison Street, then right on East Jefferson Street.0.3 mi
Turn left on North Jackson Street (US 54), which becomes IL 107.8.3 mi
Turn right on West Quincy Street (IL 107) in Griggsville, which becomes County Highway 2.4.2 mi
Turn right on County Highway 21, which becomes 2020 North and then 3725 East, to the townsite.0.7 mi

Google Maps directions Apple Maps OpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

We have no dated source on road surfaces. The routes come from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us.
The road names differ between sources: OpenStreetMap calls the road along the bluff 3725 East, while the HMdb entry gives the marker's road as 470th Street.
The Illinois DNR says weather can close roads and facilities in the area and asks visitors to call the site office first. Its closures page adds that during hunting season many sites are closed or partly closed. Groups of 25 or more must register in advance.
The area is intended primarily for public hunting, so wear bright clothing in hunting seasons. The DNR requires pets to be leashed.

Photos

Griggsville Landing in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Griggsville Landing?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Griggsville Landing

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Illinois index.

Dutton8.2 mi W · Pike
Milton10.3 mi N · Brown
White Oak Springs15.7 mi NW · Brown
Gurney34.7 mi NE · Cass
Barr35.3 mi SE · Macoupin
Sylvan36.5 mi NE · Cass
Hagaman40.4 mi SE · Macoupin
Challacombe43.4 mi SE · Macoupin

Sources

Sources and credits

Wikipedia, "Griggsville Landing, Illinois", revision of October 7, 2026: the names, the Van Dusen and Phillips ferry, the 1827 crossing, Hyrum Smith, Juliet Walker on the Phillips Ferry Road, the steamboat years, Samuel Rider's boats, the landing's buildings, the railroads, the four steamboats of 1870, Valley City's platting in 1877, the 1906 and 1912 names, and coordinates (GNIS).
Illinois DNR, "The Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln" and page 2, read October 2026: the kiln's location in the Ray Norbut area, its size, build and mid-1850s date, the landing half a mile north with its warehouse, boat yard, hotel and grist mill, firing and cooling times, William Hobson, the 1872 blacksmith shop.
Wikipedia, "Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln", read October 2026: the National Register listing of August 30, 1999, James Hutchinson's 1854 purchase, and its differing kiln coordinates and landing distance.
HMdb, "Lime Kiln", entry by Emily Pursley with photos of July 28 and December 26, 2019, read October 2026 in a browser: the marker text, its location on 470th Street 0.3 mile north of 290th Avenue and its coordinates, the kiln across the road, overgrowth in the warm months.
Illinois DNR, "Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area", read October 20, 2026: location, 1,140 acres, primarily for public hunting, the address and phone, group registration, leashed pets, weather closures.
Illinois DNR, "Current closures of DNR sites and areas", Region 4 updated October 20, 2026, read October 22, 2026: no closure listed for Ray Norbut, and a general notice that many sites close or partly close during hunting season.
Wikipedia, "Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area", read October 2026: the 1970 purchase, the 1988 addition, the 1995 renaming, I-72 through the area.
Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

The 1980 USGS sheet: Griggsville Landing below the bluff, with a boat ramp and Church Hollow: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
The 1924 USGS Griggsville sheet: Valley City at the bridge, with buildings strung along the river road to the south: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Griggsville 1924, 1:62,500; Griggsville 1980, 1:24,000; Griggsville 1998, 1:24,000.