24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Niota, IL

Niota is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Appanoose Township, Hancock County, in western Illinois, sitting on the east bank of the Mississippi River.

Niota is also known as East Fort Madison or East Fort Madison Station, after the Iowa city directly across the river.

Niota first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2020 census, which counted just 114 residents.

Niota is the eastern end of the Fort Madison Toll Bridge, the crossing that connects it to Fort Madison, Iowa, and it is the western terminus of Illinois Route 9; Illinois Route 96, part of the Great River Road, also serves the community.

The Fort Madison Toll Bridge, opened on July 26, 1927, is a double-deck swing bridge about a mile long — trains run on the lower deck and two lanes of cars cross on top — and with its 525-foot swing span it was the longest and largest double-deck swing-span bridge in the world when it was built.

The bridge, now owned by BNSF Railway and carrying its Chicago-to-Southern California Southern Transcon main line, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Niota has battled Mississippi River flooding throughout its history: the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Goldenrod was sent to help during the April 1965 flood, and in July 1993 inmates helped residents sandbag the levees, but the effort failed and the 1993 flood caused the worst damage in the community's history.

After the 1993 flood, FEMA proposed relocating and incorporating Niota at a cost of $8.5 million, but most townspeople chose to stay on the riverbank where they were.