Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Columbia, IL

Columbia was laid out in 1820 along the historic Kaskaskia Trail by men who had served with Captain George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest planned towns in Monroe County.

Columbia's Main Street follows the ancient Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail, a Native American path that linked the early French settlements of Kaskaskia and Cahokia and is now an Illinois Scenic and Historic Route.

Fort Piggott, a frontier stockade also known as Fort Big Run, was built in 1783 about a mile and a half west of present-day Columbia to protect early settlers.

Columbia was incorporated as a town on February 19, 1859, under an act approved by Governor William H. Bissell, himself a Monroe County man; it became a village in 1903 and a city in 1927.

Columbia's German heritage runs deep: German immigrants organized a Turnverein gymnastic society in 1866 under the motto 'a healthy mind in a healthy body,' and early settlers like the Breidecker family built brick homes from locally made brick the same year.

Columbia lies about 14 miles south of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, and functions as a quiet residential suburb of the Metro East while keeping its own historic Main Street identity.

Columbia has nearly doubled in size in a generation, growing from 6,089 residents in 1990 to 10,999 in the 2020 census.

Census Bureau survey estimates count about 4,450 households in Columbia, averaging about 2.5 people each, and the city is mostly in Monroe County with a small portion reaching into St. Clair County.

Columbia High School, home of the Eagles, enrolls about 600 students in Columbia Community Unit School District 4 and competes in the Cahokia Conference.

Columbia was the hometown of Admiral John P. Weinel, born there in 1916, who went on to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy and reach flag rank; the city honors him and Admiral Carlisle A. H. Trost at its Admiral Memorial Circle.