Tiskilwa, Illinois
| Tiskilwa, Illinois | |
| Village | |
 The Stevens House
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| Nickname: Gem of the Valley | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| County | Bureau |
| Townships | Indiantown, Arispie |
| Coordinates | 41°17′30″N 89°30′23″W / 41.29167°N 89.50639°WCoordinates: 41°17′30″N 89°30′23″W / 41.29167°N 89.50639°W |
| Area | 0.46 sq mi (1 km2) |
| - land | 0.46 sq mi (1 km2) |
| - water | 0.00 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Population | 829 (2010) |
| Density | 1,802.2/sq mi (696/km2) |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 61368 |
| Area code | 815 |
  Location of Tiskilwa within Illinois
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Tiskilwa is a village in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. The population was 829 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Ottawa–Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Exelon Wind, a division of Exelon Power, owns and operates the Illinois Wind AgriWind Project in Tiskilwa.
Founded in 1834, Tiskilwa emerged as a regional economic and cultural center integrating its own administrative capacities, schools, churches and shops serving a small population of townspeople and farm families from the surrounding 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 km). It was a small community whose epicenter consisted of three blocks of Main Street around which located its churches, cafes, taverns, grocery stores, beauty parlors and barbershops and any number of local business enterprises. For nearly 150 years Tiskilwa was a self-reliant community. Its residents would travel out of Tiskilwa as a novelty rather than a necessity.
All this began to change for Tiskilwa in the post-World War II era as it did across the rest of America. Travel had evolved from a horse and buggy on a one-lane dirt road to a 4-door sedan on a broad, paved and painted, two-lane highway. By 1976 the time it used to take a farmer to reach downtown Tiskilwa would put him in downtown Peoria. And maybe back home. There occurred in a relatively short period, a huge shift in the physical boundaries that framed Tiskilwa's collective consciousness. Now traveling to those three blocks of Main Street Tiskilwa was no longer a necessity, but rather a novelty. The reality of this was dawning in 1976.
The school system was a very big part of the town's heart and soul, however for various reasons the high school was deactivated in 1996. The high school aged students from Tiskilwa now attend Princeton High School. The grade school is still active in Tiskilwa though it now houses Crossroads High School and pre-school for Tiskilwa residents.
School buildings in Tiskilwa date all the way back to 1838. A newer building was built in 1850 and an updated building in 1868. In 1978 the building still standing today was built and closed with the deactivation of the school system in 1996. The first class to graduate high school from Tiskilwa did so in 1878 with a graduating class membership of two. The newer high school building pictured above is currently vacant, however plans are constantly being discussed for its future use. The old football field in Tiskilwa is currently home Princeton Youth Football League.
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Wikipedia