24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Cobden, IL

Cobden is a village in Union County, Illinois, in the 'Little Egypt' region of Southern Illinois, named for Richard Cobden, the British politician and free-trade advocate who visited the town in 1859.

Before taking Cobden's name, the settlement was also known by the early variant name 'South Pass.'

Cobden sits near the crest of the Shawnee Hills in 'Cobden Col,' a valley that served as the outlet of a glacial lake formed when the Illinoian ice sheet melted roughly 100,000 years ago.

The village grew up around the Illinois Central Railroad - now the Canadian National line - and U.S. Highway 51.

Fruit shipping from the Cobden area to Chicago began in 1858, and pioneer grower George Snyder began planting local orchards in 1857.

By the 1880s more fruit and vegetables were shipped from Cobden than from any other point on the Illinois Central Railroad, and an 1883 county history records 22 carloads of tomatoes shipped from Cobden in a single day in the fall of 1882.

Cobden-area growers pioneered the packing crates and techniques that kept fruit fresh on its way to eastern and northern markets.

Cobden remains orchard and winery country - Flamm Orchards on Old U.S. Route 51 is its best-known orchard - and the village hosts an annual fall Peach Festival.

The Cobden Unit School District #17 mascot is the 'Appleknocker,' a freckled man in a straw hat chewing a piece of straw - a name that began as a rival schools' insult mocking the local orchard industry.

The Appleknockers name was cemented as local identity when Cobden High School reached the 1964 Illinois state boys' basketball championship game, losing to Pekin 50-45, and it is regularly ranked among the most unique high school mascots in the United States.