Vishnu Springs

Overview

A spring, a hotel and a long decline

Vishnu Springs lies in a steep wooded ravine in western McDonough County, near the Hancock County line. In the 1880s crowds of as many as 2,000 people gathered there for spring water said to cure all manner of physical and mental ailments, and the spot was named for the Hindu god Vishnu. Darius Hicks, whose family owned the land, built the Capitol Hotel in 1889 or 1890, by the two accounts we read, and around the turn of the century sold town lots for $30 apiece. The resort added a restaurant, a blacksmith shop, parks, a fishing pond, a racetrack and a schoolhouse.

It never took off. There was no railroad and no navigable river, and guests came by horse and buggy from Colchester. Hicks was gone by 1908 at the latest, and by the 1920s most businesses had closed. Ira Post ran the grounds as a picnic spot from 1935 until his death in the 1950s, a 1968 attempt to revive the restaurant failed, and in the 1970s students from Western Illinois University rented the hotel for a commune. It was empty again by 1982.

In 2003 the land went to the university. It is now the Ira & Reatha T. Post Wildlife Sanctuary, run by the WIU Foundation as a study area. The hotel is the only building left, damaged by vandals and covered in graffiti, and the Friends of Vishnu, an independent group, have opened the grounds for occasional open houses.

Timeline

Healing water to wildlife sanctuary

1. 1860s–1870sBy Michael Kleen's account, farmer Ebenezer Hicks first takes note of the spring water.
2. 1880sGatherings of as many as 2,000 people come to the valley for water said to cure all sorts of ailments. The spring is named for the Hindu god Vishnu.
3. 1889–1890Darius Hicks's Capitol Hotel goes up: built in 1889 by Tri States Public Radio's account, opened in 1890 by Kleen's. It measures 26 by 40 feet.
4. About 1900Hicks sells town lots for $30 each. The resort adds a blacksmith shop, a restaurant, parks, a fishing pond, a racetrack and a schoolhouse. Visitors come by horse and buggy from Colchester.
5. 1903A supervisor is pulled into the gears of the horse-powered carousel and killed, and the carousel never runs again. Wikipedia says Hicks leaves the resort that year; Kleen says he died by suicide in 1908.
6. 1920sWith no railroad and no navigable river, the guests stop coming. Most businesses have closed and the town can be considered abandoned.
7. 1935–1950sIra Post reopens the grounds as a vacation and picnic spot, with limited success, until his death in the 1950s.
8. 1968Alfred White, Albert Simmons and Irvin Minor try to reopen the restaurant and a country music attraction.
9. 1970sWestern Illinois University students rent the hotel and start a commune that farms, keeps livestock and holds music festivals.
10. 1982The hotel is abandoned again.
11. 2003The land is given to Western Illinois University and becomes the Ira & Reatha T. Post Wildlife Sanctuary, run by the WIU Foundation.
12. 2009–2018The Friends of Vishnu hold occasional open houses with the Foundation's permission. Tri States Public Radio reports them in 2009, 2015 and 2018, among others.

Legend and record

Ghost stories

Tri States Public Radio noted in 2018 that some people are drawn to Vishnu Springs because they think it's haunted. One story, which Michael Kleen attributes to the author Troy Taylor and calls a rumor, says Darius Hicks's wife Maud died in childbirth in one of the hotel rooms.

We found nothing in the record to support a haunting, and Kleen himself presents the childbirth story as rumor. We keep these stories on the page because visitors will hear them, and we label them as legend. The one death at the resort that Wikipedia describes is the 1903 carousel accident, which it takes from Troy Taylor's Weird Illinois; Kleen writes more generally of deadly incidents and scandals in the early 1900s.

What's left

One hotel in the woods

The Capitol Hotel is the only building still standing. It is small, 26 by 40 feet, and Kleen describes it as having had 20 guest rooms, a dining room, a parlor and a dance hall. Wikipedia and an undated listing call it three stories; a 2009 Tri States Public Radio report says four. Vandals have damaged it inside and out, and its walls are covered in graffiti. Visitors at the 2018 open house were kept off the upper floors. The same undated listing also names a grain bin, a pool, steep steps up a hill and a single tombstone.

The 1913 USGS sheet, in the historic maps below, labels Vishnu Sprs where a road runs down into the ravine in section 7, with Joetta to the west and the East Fork to the south. The 1974 sheet shows a lane coming in from the north and ending at a single building in the ravine. Today's map labels Vishnu Springs in the wooded ravine between County Road 1075 North and County Road 125 East.

• Capitol Hotel (1889 or 1890)
• Grain bin
• Pool
• Steps up the hill
• One tombstone

Historic maps

Vishnu Springs on USGS maps, 1913–1974

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.

19131:62,50019741:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Macomb, home of Western Illinois University, is the nearest city, about 33 minutes away by US 136 and county roads. From Peoria the drive takes US 24 and US 136 through Macomb. Both routes stop on County Road 125 East, about 0.6 mile east of the mapped townsite, and we found no public road to the hotel. The land is a university sanctuary that has opened only for occasional events, so treat these routes as a location reference, not directions for a visit.

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

Photos

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Visitor reports

Been to Vishnu Springs?

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 Vishnu Springs

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

• Tuscumbia31.1 mi E · Fulton
• Totten Prairie33.0 mi E · Fulton
• White Oak Springs38.1 mi S · Brown
• Midway38.8 mi NE · Fulton
• Bybee39.0 mi E · Fulton
• Sugarville41.5 mi E · Fulton
• Civer41.8 mi E · Fulton
• Milton42.4 mi S · Brown

Sources

Sources and credits

1. ghosttowns.com, "Vishnu Springs": fact sheet fields (county, best time, remains). The entry is undated.
2. Wikipedia, "Vishnu Springs, Illinois", revision of September 27, 2026: the 1880s gatherings, the name, Darius Hicks and the $30 lots, the three-story Capitol Hotel, the resort's buildings, the carousel death, Hicks leaving in 1903, abandonment by the 1920s, Ira Post, the 1968 attempt, the commune, 1982, the 2003 gift, the sanctuary, elevation (594 ft) and coordinates.
3. "Hope Springs Eternal at Vishnu Springs", Tri States Public Radio, October 23, 2009: the 140-acre site closed to the public for the most part, researchers allowed, the four-story hotel, vandalism and graffiti, the open house crowd.
4. Rich Egger, "Opening Vishnu Springs to the Public", Tri States Public Radio, October 14, 2015: one of the few times the site is open, the Friends of Vishnu open house held with the WIU Foundation's permission, research use by WIU's Department of Biological Sciences.
5. Rich Egger, "Reflections on Vishnu Springs", Tri States Public Radio, October 29, 2018: the open house every few years, the 140 acres owned by the WIU Foundation, the hotel built in 1889 and its 26-by-40-foot size, the closed upper floors, the haunting reputation, the Friends group's independence.
6. Michael Kleen, "The Vishnu Springs Ghost Town", August 21, 2018: Ebenezer Hicks, the hotel's 1890 opening and its rooms, Darius Hicks's death in 1908, the commune, 1982, the 2003 gift, patrols and trespass fines, the childbirth rumor.
7. Macomb Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, "Vishnu Springs: The Ira & Reatha T. Post Wildlife Sanctuary", updated August 4, 2025, Internet Archive copy of December 11, 2025 (the live page blocks automated readers): the Capitol Hotel as the only remaining structure and the WIU Foundation as owner. It says nothing about visiting.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The 1913 USGS Colchester sheet labels Vishnu Sprs at the head of a ravine in section 7: 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): Colchester 1913, 1:62,500; Fountain Green 1974, 1:24,000.