Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Grayville, IL

Grayville is a city straddling White County and Edwards County in southeastern Illinois, at the crossroads of Illinois Route 1 near Interstate 64.

Grayville was founded in about 1810 by James Gray, head of the Gray family, at the mouth of Bonpas Creek on the Wabash River, and the city is named for him.

Grayville was among the earliest settlements in White County, which was organized in 1815.

Oil discovered in the Wabash River bottoms in 1939 transformed Grayville into a boom town; in 1940 it was said you could walk between Grayville and Crossville simply by walking from rig to rig.

Grayville's population peaked at 2,461 in the 1950 census during the oil era and was 1,550 at the 2020 census, down from 1,666 in 2010.

Grayville once sat at the northern end of a four-mile oxbow bend of the Wabash River, but the river changed course after a flood in 1985, leaving the town about two miles from the new channel.

Bonpas Creek now flows through part of Grayville's former river channel, keeping water access for canoes and shallow-draft boats.

Sections of Grayville's large railroad bridge across the Wabash River into Indiana collapsed during a major flood in January 2005.

Grayville is the birthplace of James Meredith Helm, a United States naval hero.

The 2000 census counted 754 households in Grayville, and unlike many Illinois oil towns that faded, Grayville still tends to thrive.