Onarga: The First Station in Iroquois County

Onarga was laid out in eighteen fifty-four as the Illinois Central tracks pushed south from Kankakee. It became the first railroad station in all of Iroquois County. Where the name came from is genuinely disputed.

One account says it is an Iroquois word meaning a place of rocky hills. Other accounts say it was invented by a railroad official or honors a Native American woman. Whatever the name means, the town has carried it since the railroad first platted the place.