Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Bethalto, IL

Bethalto is a village in Madison County, Illinois, in the Metro East portion of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, about 25 miles northeast of downtown St. Louis.

Bethalto was founded in 1834 and incorporated on April 19, 1869, and it is governed by a village president and six trustees elected at large.

The name Bethalto is a blend of the village's original name, Bethel, and nearby Alton - it was coined after the first post office application revealed that another Bethel, Illinois already existed.

The area's first pioneer settlement was Rattan's Prairie, established by Ohio settler Thomas Rattan in 1804 along Indian Creek, and the village itself was laid out by Joel U. Starkey in 1854.

Bethalto grew up as a railway town on the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad, and in the 19th century its industries included milling grain from local farms and coal mining.

In the early 20th century the railroad was rerouted through nearby Edwardsville, and by the mid-20th century the rail industry had left entirely, turning Bethalto into a residential bedroom community.

The 2020 census counted 9,310 people in Bethalto, and Census Bureau figures put the village at about 4,100 households with an owner-occupancy rate of roughly 80 percent.

Bethalto covers about 7.6 square miles in southwestern Madison County, in the Illinois bluff country east of the Mississippi River floodplain.

The Bethalto Village Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bethalto's parks include Municipal Park, home to a swimming pool, the Over The Top Skate Park, lighted tennis courts and an amphitheater, plus Culp Lane Park with its fishing lake and the roughly 106-acre Bethalto Sports Complex.