Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near West Chenoa Chenoa, IL

Chenoa is a city in McLean County, Illinois, founded in 1854 by Kentucky land developer Mathew T. Scott as a retail and trade center for his farm tenants and a grain-shipping point.

Scott laid out the town on May 13, 1856, and advertised the first sale of lots on May 15, 1856.

The name Chenoa is a Native American name associated with the Kentucky River, a nod to founder Mathew T. Scott's Kentucky roots.

Chenoa began as two rival towns — Chenoa west of the railroad tracks and East Chenoa east of them — which were united under one town government in 1864.

Chenoa grew where the Chicago & Alton and the Peoria & Oquawka (later Toledo, Peoria and Western) railroads crossed, the only railroad crossing expected in McLean County at the time.

Today Chenoa sits at the junction of Interstate 55, Historic Route 66 and U.S. Route 24, and its ZIP code is 61726.

The farmland surrounding Chenoa is described as some of the richest soil in the world, and McLean County is traditionally Illinois' leading corn and soybean producer.

Chenoa's first structures were two half-sod, half-board dugouts serving as depot and freight house — one of the very few mentions of sod houses in McLean County history.

J.B. Lenney, who built the Farmers' Store in Chenoa in 1855, is remembered as the 'Father of Chenoa.'

The Matthew T. Scott House, the founder's home, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982; future Vice President Adlai Stevenson I courted Letitia Green there, and their wedding took place in the house in 1866.