Abandoned Towns
A two-lane road past a flat, empty field with a row of bare trees where the old business district stood

Valmeyer

The Great Flood of 1993 put old Valmeyer under as much as 14 feet of water. Instead of rebuilding in the floodplain, the town moved up the bluff and started over. Down below, the old business district is broken sidewalks and empty lots, with a few homes still lived in.

38°17′43″N 90°18′37″W · ≈400 ft

Photo: Dpalme, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Mostly empty townsite · public roads

IL 156 runs through the old townsite, so you can see it from the road. The lots are mostly empty, but a dozen to 25 homes were still lived in, per two accounts of May and July 2021; they are private. New Valmeyer, a living village of 1,233 (2020), sits on the bluff above.

Overview

The town that moved up the hill

A broken sidewalk running through dry grass in the old business district, with the bluffs behind, March 2009
A broken sidewalk running through dry grass in the old business district, with the bluffs behind, March 2009 · Photo: Dpalme, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Valmeyer grew up beside a railroad in the American Bottom, the flat Mississippi floodplain at the foot of the Monroe County bluffs. The oldest USGS sheet here, from 1912, already shows it. By the 1950s it had spread along IL 156, with a community high school, oil tanks and a cemetery at the base of the bluff. In 1990 it had 897 people.

In August 1993 the Mississippi broke through. Accounts of the date differ: Belt Magazine says the Army Corps of Engineers breached a levee on August 3, while the flood memorial at the new school speaks of life before August 2. About half the town sat under roughly 14 feet of water and the rest under one to eight, and a second crest came a month later. About 95 percent of the properties were badly damaged.

Valmeyer chose to leave. Nearly 70 percent of residents agreed to move, and about four months after the flood the village broke ground on a 500-acre farm on the bluffs, a mile and a half to two miles east. Reports put it 300 to nearly 400 feet higher; USGS elevations at the two village points differ by about 250 feet. Federal, state and local money paid about $22 million for the new site and $23 million to buy out the old homes, most of which were torn down within two years. Some 700 people moved up the hill over three or four years. About a dozen families stayed below, by the Christian Science Monitor's count.

The new Valmeyer is a living village of 1,233 people. The old one is what earns the ghost-town label: a flat stretch of the bottoms where streets, foundations and a business district once stood, now mostly open ground beside the highway.

Then and now

Old Valmeyer from the air, 1962 and 2019

Old Valmeyer sat on the Mississippi bottomland at the foot of the bluffs, along IL 156 and the railroad. On June 24, 1962, a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey plane photographed it with houses on every block on both sides of the tracks, the community high school to the west and St. John's cemetery at the bluff. In 1990 the town had 897 people.

The flood of August 1993 put it under as much as 14 feet of water. Most damaged buildings were bought out and torn down within two years, and the village rebuilt on the bluffs to the east, outside this frame. The second photograph, from the federal farm survey of August 28, 2019, shows the same streets around empty lots, many of them farmed, a few houses and the ballpark.

Drag the line across the photo, or use the arrow keys.
2019 aerial photograph: the same streets and railroad around empty lots and fields, a few houses and the ballpark, below the same bluffsMain Street (IL 156)RailroadEmpty lots, many farmedBallparkSt. John's cemeteryField where the school stood2019
1962 aerial photograph: houses on every block of Valmeyer's street grid on both sides of the railroad, the high school to the west and wooded bluffs to the eastMain Street (IL 156)RailroadHouses on every blockBallfieldSt. John's cemeteryCommunity high school1962
1962 aerial photograph: houses on every block of Valmeyer's street grid on both sides of the railroad, the high school to the west and wooded bluffs to the eastMain Street (IL 156)RailroadHouses on every blockBallfieldSt. John's cemeteryCommunity high school1962
1962. Houses on every block of Valmeyer's street grid on both sides of the railroad, the high school to the west and wooded bluffs to the east.
2019 aerial photograph: the same streets and railroad around empty lots and fields, a few houses and the ballpark, below the same bluffsMain Street (IL 156)RailroadEmpty lots, many farmedBallparkSt. John's cemeteryField where the school stood2019
2019. The same streets and railroad around empty lots and fields, a few houses and the ballpark, below the same bluffs.

1962: U.S. Department of Agriculture; scan by the Illinois State Geological Survey (ILHAP), source, Public domain. 2019: U.S. Department of Agriculture NAIP, via USGS The National Map, source, Public domain. Both photographs cover the same 1.6 by 1.2 km and were lined up on 17 street junctions and stretches of railroad and road on the flat bottomland, to within about 2 m; the wooded bluff at right is not corrected for its height and lines up less well. Labels: the railroad, the high school and St. John's cemetery from the 1954 USGS Valmeyer sheet, Main Street (IL 156) and the ballpark from the guide's sources, the rest from what the photographs show.

Timeline

Bottomland town, flood and move

  1. The first USGS sheet of the area shows Valmeyer as a small town on the railroad at the foot of the bluffs, in the Mississippi's American Bottom.
  2. The maps show it along IL 156; the 1954 sheet marks a community high school, oil tanks and St. John's cemetery at the bluff.
  3. The census counts 897 people.
  4. The Great Flood reaches the town. Belt Magazine says the Corps of Engineers breached a levee on August 3; the school memorial speaks of life "before August 2 1993." About half the town stands under some 14 feet of water, and a second crest comes a month later. About 95 percent of the properties are badly damaged.
  5. About four months after the flood, the village breaks ground on a 500-acre farm tract on the bluffs. Within two years most damaged buildings in the old town have been bought out and torn down.
  6. The census counts 608 people.
  7. The census counts 1,263 people.
  8. Officials put the cost at $22 million for the new site and $23 million for the buyouts.
  9. The census counts 1,233 people in the village.
  10. Writers find Main Street in the old town mostly abandoned, with vacant lots, roads worn to gravel and a dozen to 25 homes still lived in. The July Fourth celebration still fills the old grounds.

What's left

Empty lots in the bottoms

The new village hall on the bluff, built after the move, March 2009
The new village hall on the bluff, built after the move, March 2009 · Photo: Dpalme, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Most of the old town is gone. The buyout program required the bought-out homes and buildings to be torn down, and Belt Magazine wrote in May 2021 that no trace of the old structures remains. A photo from March 2009 shows the business district reduced to a few broken sidewalks in dry grass beside the highway. In July 2021 the Christian Science Monitor found Main Street mostly abandoned, home lots vacant and the old roads worn to gravel, with soybean fields creeping toward the ballpark and trains passing an empty crossing. The two accounts disagree on who stayed: about 25 occupied homes, says Belt; roughly a dozen families, says the Monitor.

The old town still has one big day. Each Fourth of July the Jaycees hold a three-day celebration on the old grounds, with a parade down Main Street, a baseball tournament and fireworks, and former residents stand where their houses were.

The historic maps show the whole town. The 1954 and 1993 Valmeyer sheets show a grid of streets around IL 156 and the railroad, a park, oil tanks, St. John's cemetery at the foot of the bluff, and quarries and caves in the bluff above. Compare them with today's topo and aerial below, where the streets remain but most lots are open ground or fields.

  • Broken sidewalks of the old business district
  • Vacant home lots and gravel streets
  • A dozen to 25 occupied homes (2021 reports; private)
  • Ballpark and Fourth of July grounds
  • The railroad and IL 156 through the old town
USGS topographic map of the old Valmeyer townsite in the Mississippi bottoms
USGS The National Map, topo. IL 156 and the railroad cross the old townsite at the foot of the bluffs.
Aerial view of fields, a few houses and open lots at the old Valmeyer townsite
Aerial imagery, same area. The old streets still frame open lots, a few houses and fields.

Historic maps

Valmeyer on USGS maps, 1912–1993

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 Valmeyer, 1912
Kimmswick sheet, 1912, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Waterloo, the county seat, is ten miles east. IL 156 runs west from Waterloo past the new village on the bluff and down into the bottoms to the old townsite. From St. Louis, cross the Mississippi on I-55/I-64, follow IL 3 south and turn west on IL 156.

USGS topographic map of the bluffs and Mississippi bottoms around Valmeyer, with the routes 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 Waterloo9.8 miabout 19 min
  1. From downtown Waterloo, take West Mill Street and South Main Street to West 4th Street (IL 156).0.2 mi
  2. Follow IL 156 along South Church Street and Park Street, through the roundabout.1.1 mi
  3. Continue west on IL 156 past the new village and down the bluff.8.2 mi
  4. Continue onto East Main Street in the old town.0.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • IL 156 is a paved two-lane road through the old town in a March 2009 photo. The Christian Science Monitor found the old town's own streets worn to gravel in 2021.
  • Homes still standing in the old town are private. See the townsite from the highway and public streets.
  • The old town is in the floodplain. Don't drive into water over the road in a high-water season.

Photos

Valmeyer in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Valmeyer?

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.

Nearby

Other sites near Valmeyer

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Valmeyer, Illinois", retrieved October 2026: the American Bottom site, the census figures (898 in 1980, 897 in 1990, 1,233 in 2020), the move two miles east and over 300 feet up, FEMA aid, the old townsite described as a ghost town on IL 156, the business district reduced to broken sidewalks, the 646-ft elevation of the village.
  2. ghosttowns.com, Valmyer: fact sheet (2WD, anytime, fair climate, some buildings remaining) and its note that some residents moved back.
  3. Rachel Hellman, Belt Magazine, May 14, 2021: the August 3, 1993, levee breach, 95 percent of properties damaged, the 500-acre tract, about 25 occupied homes, buildings torn down under the buyout, the gas station in place of the pub, the Fourth of July parade.
  4. Doug Struck, Christian Science Monitor, July 15, 2021: 14 feet of water, the second crest, the new town 2 miles away and about 400 feet up, 70 percent agreeing to move, about 700 movers, Main Street mostly abandoned, vacant lots and gravel roads, a dozen families, the three-day Jaycees celebration.
  5. St. Louis Public Radio, July 30, 2013: buyouts and demolition within two years, the new village a mile and a half east and nearly 400 feet higher, the $22 million and $23 million costs.
  6. Historical Marker Database, "1993 Valmeyer Flood Memorial", photographed January 13, 2026: the memorial built from the old school, at the new high school, with life "before August 2 1993."
  7. Old townsite location: OpenStreetMap (East Main Street, Valmeyer). Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits