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Illinois Bend

Ghost town · Montague County, Texas

Leon North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1968, 1:24,000)
Leon North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1968, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Illinois Bend is a ghost town in Montague County, Texas. It is one of 4 former communities in Montague County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 26th among the 165 Texas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Illinois Bend as a historical populated place: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 33.8817° N, 97.4872° W.

Key facts

Elevation774 ft
Nearest living townLeon, OK
Distance to it3.3 miles
Coordinates33.88170, -97.48720

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Illinois Bend today, aerial view
Leon North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1968, 1:24,000)

Left: Leon North quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1968, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Illinois Bend is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Leon, OK (population 69), about 3.3 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 774 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Illinois Bend?

Illinois Bend is in Montague County, Texas, at 33.8817, -97.4872.

How many ghost towns are in Montague County?

Montague County, Texas has 4 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.