I was playing around with Google Maps today and realized that the Google Street View folks have driven through my tiny little home town of Mackinaw, IL.  They didn’t drive all over the place … they just made a beeline down the main drag.  But still, very cool.  So enjoy your online tour of Mackinaw, Illinois!

Click on any image below to view and interact with it.  Click and drag to “look around”.  Click on the street arrows to drive up and down the street.

[All street view images are copyright and owned by Google.]

Welcome to Mackinaw, Illinois where the population is around 1,500 very nice folks.  It’s only 30 minutes from Peoria to the West and 50 minutes from Bloomington to the East.

This is the old historic Mackinaw Train Depot.  It sat empty and in near ruins for many many years when I was growing up.  When I was in high school, the historical society paid me to mow it.  They also paid me to paint the historical sign that was displayed out front for many years.  Some very smart entrepreneurs came up with the idea to make a tea room and a gift shop out of it and it’s been thriving now for many years.

Here is Mackinaw’s downtown park.  It’s also very historic.  I have some photos from the Mackinaw Sesquicentennial in 1976 of my family dressed up in Sesquicentennial garb and watching the time capsule burial ceremony here.  That should be fun to open up someday.  There is an historic naval ship gun turret displayed here in this park.  You can see it on the left in the photo.  It’s pretty cool and fun for kids to play on.  Last summer I got photos of my boys climbing and playing on it, just like I did when I was their age!

Here is the only grocery store in the area … the Mackinaw IGA.  I worked here during high school and Junior College along with many of my classmates.  Sadly this store burned down last year.  Here is another photo.  The owner says they’re gonna rebuild, though.

Here is a view looking downtown.  It’s a very small and friendly little town.

Mmmmmm.  Ice cream.  This ice cream stand wasn’t quite this big when I was growing up.  It’s good to see that business is good and they have added on to the original little shed building.

The Christian Church in Mackinaw.  It’s a beautiful building inside and out.  This isn’t the church my family attended, but some of my friends attended here and I visited occasionally and have good memories from it.  My United Methodist church didn’t get photographed by the Google Street View cameras or I’d include it here too.

Mackinaw Grade School.  It looks quite a bit different than when I was attending.  I attended here from Kindergarten all the way through 8th grade.  The Junior high was in a different area of the building than the lower grades.  I don’t think any of the original building remains anymore.

The Mackinaw Grain Elevator.  When you live in the middle of corn country, you can’t hardly throw a rock without hitting a grain elevator.

Well, that’s about all the Google Street View folks were able to capture by driving down the main drag.  There’s way more to Mackinaw than what you can see from these few photos, though.  If you’re ever in the area, drive on through and stop by one of the nice little restaurants or stores.  You’ll be glad you did.

Kurt