Grand Tower | |
City | |
Grand Tower, Illinois, Front Street
|
|
Country | United States |
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State | Illinois |
County | Jackson |
Coordinates | 37°37′57″N 89°30′7″W / 37.63250°N 89.50194°WCoordinates: 37°37′57″N 89°30′7″W / 37.63250°N 89.50194°W |
Area | 1.25 sq mi (3 km2) |
- land | 1.25 sq mi (3 km2) |
- water | 0.00 sq mi (0 km2) |
Population | 624 (2000) |
Density | 496.0/sq mi (192/km2) |
Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
- summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
Postal code | 62942 |
Area code | 618 |
Grand Tower is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 624 at the 2000 census. The town gets its name from Tower Rock, a landmark island in the Mississippi River.
Grand Tower is located at 37°37′57″N 89°30′7″W / 37.63250°N 89.50194°W (37.632599, -89.501944).
According to the 2010 census, Grand Tower has a total area of 1.253 square miles (3.25 km2), of which 1.25 square miles (3.24 km2) (or 99.76%) is land and 0.003 square miles (0.01 km2) (or 0.24%) is water.
Immediately to the south of the city is a small portion of Perry County, Missouri, which is known as "Grand Tower Island". The island's sole road connection terminates in Grand Tower. The Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge connects a natural gas pipeline across the Mississippi River between Wittenberg, Missouri and Grand Tower.
The Grand Tower Energy Center is a 478 megawatt combined cycle gas fired facility which produces power for the region. It is owned by Ameren Energy Generating Company, or Genco.
Former names of this town include La Tour ("The Tower"), Jenkins Landing, Cochran's Woodyard Landing, and Evans' Landing.
The earliest inhabitants were a band of river pirates, who settled here after, being driven off of Spanish soil, west of the Mississippi River, near the pirate ambush spot of Tower Rock. This outlaw settlement was destroyed by the United States Army dragoons in 1803. A subsequent settler was a man named Walker who is the namesake of Walker Hill. Severe flooding struck the town in 1947.