Biohazard Cleanup Near Spear Towanda, IL

Towanda is a village in McLean County, Illinois, about 6 miles northeast of Normal, and part of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area.

Towanda was named for Towanda in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and the name means "burial ground" in Nanticoke, an Algonquian language.

Towanda was laid out by McLean County land developers Jesse W. Fell and Charles W. Holder, who filed the town plat on December 7, 1854; the village itself dates its founding to May 5, 1875.

Jesse W. Fell, one of Towanda's founders, was a prolific town founder in central Illinois who also played a major role in founding Clinton, Dwight, Normal and Pontiac.

Towanda had a population of 431 at the 2020 census, down from 480 in 2010 and 493 in 2000, when the village had 199 households.

Historic U.S. Route 66 ran through Towanda, and today about half of the old Route 66 roadbed in the village survives as a walking trail known locally as the 66 Trail.

The Duncan Mansion, a three-story, 20-room home built by William R. Duncan in the 1860s near the railroad tracks, is Towanda's most famous house.

Towanda's Baptist church was first built in 1856 and remains one of the oldest active buildings in the village.

Towanda's children attend Towanda Elementary School in McLean County Unit District No. 5, the same district that serves Normal.

A tributary of Money Creek flows through Towanda on its way to the Mackinaw River, and Interstate 55 passes the village's northwest corner at Exit 171.