Mount Carmel, Illinois

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Mount Carmel is the county seat of Wabash County, Illinois. At the time of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,982: the next largest town in Wabash County is Allendale, Illinois, population 528. The city sits on the western bank of the Wabash River, and is neighbored by a small community known informally as East Mount Carmel, IN. It is the birthplace of Brace Beemer, the voice of The Lone Ranger radio program; Don Liddle, pitcher for the New York Giants from 1952 to 1954, who pitched the decisive fourth game of the '54 World Series; ornithologist/author Robert Ridgway; Captain Bellenden Seymour Hutcheson, recipient of Canada's Victoria Cross; and, during brief intervals, Broadway and television actress Nancy Dussault.

The town is 5 miles northeast of the Forest of the Wabash, a National Natural Landmark within Beall Woods State Park.

The city was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not! for its once multi-colored bridge, painted white and black on the Illinois and Indiana sides of the state line, respectively. The bridge, now green, connects Princeton, Indiana to Mount Carmel via Indiana Highway 64 and Illinois Route 15. [1]

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[edit] Employment & Environment

Mount Carmel lost 270 jobs in 2003 to the closing of a Snap-on Tools factory that had been in operation since 1937. However, the town has an unemployment rate of just 4.6%, as of May, 2006 [2]. The situation has substantially improved since 1992, when the unemployment rate peaked as high as 15.1% [3].

Duke Energy's Gibson Generating Station is the nearest employer of substantial size. The Gibson County, IN power plant is located less than a mile away from Mount Carmel, directly across the river. It is the third largest coal power plant in the world [4], and the eighth largest power plant in the United States [5]. Environmental concerns about the Gibson Generating Station are on the rise, following its repeated emmission of a blue toxic cloud over the town [6].

A coal mine in neighboring Keensburg, Illinois also employs a fair number of Mount Carmel residents. Nearby employers include Indiana's Toyota factory, producing the Tundra pickup truck line, and a Champion Labratories plant in Albion, Illinois that produces air and fuel filters.

Local employers include several oil & gas firms, exploiting the Southern Indiana Oil Basin, which extends into Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, which once had reserves of over 4 billion barrels of crude oil.

[edit] Education

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Mount Carmel is home to Wabash Valley College, part of the Illinois Eastern Community Colleges (IECC)[7]. The college has 1375 students, and has an active international student program. The small town atmosphere provides a laid back, comfortable setting in which international students may study English as a second language (ESL). As part of the IECC, residents benefit from a reciprocal agreement where some of the out-of-state fees to attend the University of Southern Indiana are waved, in exchange for similar tuition discounts for Indiana students in IECC schools. Their men's basketball team, the Warriors, won the NJCAA Division I championships in 2001.

Mount Carmel's K-12 school district is Wabash Community Schools District 348. It has two elementary schools, divided by grade (South and North Schools), a new middle school (Mount Carmel Middle School, built in 2000, and Mount Carmel High School, the only high school in the county. The high school's football team, The Golden Aces, won the class 3A state championships in 1981, and the team made it to the playoffs 21 years in a row. They play at home in Riverview Stadium, more commonly known as the Snakepit[8]. The stadium is perhaps the most unique in the region for having been built into the side of a large hill. The school's business communications class teaches students webpage construction and the students design and maintain numerous sites for businesses in town.

[edit] Geography

Mount Carmel is located at 38°24′53″N, 87°46′7″W (38.414859, -87.768596)GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12.4 km² (4.8 mi²). 12.0 km² (4.6 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (3.14%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 7,982 people, 3,302 households, and 2,146 families residing in the city. The population density was 667.1/km² (1,728.7/mi²). There were 3,653 housing units at an average density of 305.3/km² (791.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.69% White, 0.48% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.51% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 0.29% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.86% of the population.

There were 3,302 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.2% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.0% were non-families. 30.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.6% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 25.7% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 19.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years.

The median income for a household in the city was $31,715, and the median income for a family was $39,882. Males had a median income of $30,815 versus $17,129 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,391. Median house value is $51,200. About 10.2% of families and 15.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.5% of those under age 18 and 9.3% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

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