Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Blairsville, IL

Blairsville is an unincorporated census-designated place in Williamson County in southern Illinois — it first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2020 census, which counted 243 residents.

Blairsville marks one of the first points of settlement in Williamson County: William Campbell built a cabin at the site in 1823 at a gravel ford across the Big Muddy River.

Local tradition holds that George Rogers Clark crossed the river at this ford in 1778 on his way toward Kaskaskia, though local historians note it would not have been his most direct route.

The crossing's steep bank earned it the nickname "Pull-Tight," because teamsters had to yell for their teams to pull tight when hauling wagons across the ford.

Stephen Blair arrived around 1832, built a watermill on the east bank of the Big Muddy, and gave the community the Blairsville name; he and his brother Wiley later added a country store as a village grew up around the mill.

A village plat was surveyed on April 28, 1850, and in 1856 George W. Aiken's general store became home to the Blairsville post office.

When grading was done for a new highway bridge in 1938, workers uncovered an Indigenous burial ground at the site.

The Blairsville CDP covers about 1.01 square miles along County Route 9, roughly 1.8 miles southeast of Hurst and 2 miles north of Cambria, and Census Bureau survey estimates count roughly 106 housing units in the community.