Pontiac: Named for a Rebellion, Built on a Railroad

Henry Weed and brothers Lucius and Seth Young laid out Pontiac in eighteen thirty-seven with a specific purpose: to make it the county seat of the newly created Livingston County. Jesse Fell named the town after Chief Pontiac of the Ottawa Nation, who had led a major uprising against British forts in the seventeen sixties. The seat of government was secured, and the town grew steadily until the Chicago and Alton Railroad arrived in eighteen fifty-four, which transformed it from a courthouse village into a commercial hub.

Route Sixty-Six was designated in nineteen twenty-six, and Pontiac sat squarely on the alignment, drawing travelers for decades. Today the town is home to the Illinois Route Sixty-Six Museum and Hall of Fame, and several original Route Sixty-Six alignments can still be driven through the old downtown. Pontiac's courthouse square, dating to the eighteen seventies, remains one of the better-preserved small-city centers along the Mother Road.