Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Cairo, IL

Cairo (pronounced KAIR-oh) is the southernmost city in Illinois and the county seat of Alexander County, named after Cairo, Egypt, in the region of southern Illinois known as "Little Egypt."

Cairo sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, near the Cache River complex, a designated Wetland of International Importance.

Cairo has the lowest elevation of any location in Illinois and is the only city in the state entirely surrounded by levees.

Settlement began in earnest in the 1830s, busy steamboat traffic expanded through the 1850s, and Cairo was incorporated in 1858 as a major river port.

During the Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant made Cairo his headquarters and supply base, building Fort Defiance at the river confluence in 1862, and the city also served as a naval base for the Mississippi River Squadron.

Cairo's population peaked at 15,203 in the 1920 census, but the 2020 census counted only 1,733 residents, a loss of about 89 percent, after the city shrank in eight consecutive censuses from 1950 to 2020.

Recent Census Bureau survey estimates put Cairo at only about 660 households, with a median household income of roughly $41,900.

Completion of the Cairo Mississippi River Bridge in 1929 and the Cairo Ohio River Bridge in 1937 ended the city's ferry industry and hastened its decline.

The entire city of Cairo was evacuated during the 2011 Mississippi River floods, when the Ohio River rose higher than its 1937 flood levels.

Wealthy river merchants built grand homes in Cairo, including Magnolia Manor, a 14-room Italianate mansion finished in 1869 with double walls and ten-inch airspaces designed to keep out the river dampness; it is now a museum listed on the National Register of Historic Places.