Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Goreville, IL

Goreville is a village in northwestern Johnson County in deep southern Illinois, set on a high ridge at about 722 feet elevation along Illinois Route 37, five miles south of Interstate 57.

Goreville is named for John Gore, who bought 40 acres of land from the United States government in 1854 and ran a general store on the property.

A post office built on Gore's land in 1866 was named Goreville in his honor, and the original settlement around it is still known locally as Old Town.

When the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad built its line about a mile northeast of town in 1898, many of Goreville's businesses relocated toward the tracks.

The Village of Goreville officially incorporated on April 18, 1900, when its population was just 406.

The 2020 census counted 1,068 residents in Goreville, living in 451 households with a median age of 41.5 years, and the village's population had peaked at 1,109 back in 1970.

Goreville is bordered on the south by Ferne Clyffe State Park, whose fern-filled sandstone bluffs and waterfalls draw more than 250,000 visitors a year.

Ferne Clyffe got its name in 1899 when two brothers from Cairo bought the Hawks' Cave and Big Rocky Hollow area and named it for the ferns growing there; local schoolteacher Emma Rebman later sold 140 acres to the state in 1949 to create the park.

Goreville students attend Goreville Community Unit School District 1, a district covering about 68 square miles with more than 650 students, and Goreville High School stands on South Ferne Clyffe Road with fewer than 200 students.

Lake of Egypt, a popular boating and fishing lake, lies just west of Goreville, and much of the surrounding school district is made up of the Tunnel Hill and Lake of Egypt communities.