Effingham: The Crossroads of Opportunity

Effingham has called itself the Crossroads of Opportunity since the railroads arrived, and the name has only gotten more literal over time. The city sits precisely where Interstate Seventy, running east to west from Utah to Maryland, meets Interstate Fifty-Seven, running north to south from Chicago toward the Missouri border. It is one of the more significant highway intersections in the Midwest, and Effingham built its identity around it.

The town traces its roots to eighteen fourteen, when the first settlers arrived along the Little Wabash River. The National Road and later the Pennsylvania and Illinois Central railroads made it a regional hub long before the interstates.

The most visible landmark today is the Cross at the Crossroads, completed in two thousand one: a steel cross one hundred ninety-eight feet tall and one hundred thirteen feet wide, visible for miles from the highway. The local community raised over a million dollars to build it. Whether you find it striking or startling, it is exactly the kind of thing a town does when it decides its greatest asset is the fact that everyone drives through.