24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Waggoner, IL

Waggoner is a village in Pitman Township in northwestern Montgomery County — and it is the only town in the entire township.

Waggoner was founded and named after George Waggoner, one of the area's first settlers, who came to Illinois from Kentucky.

Waggoner's post office opened in 1886, and the village grew up on the Illinois Central Railroad as a shipping point for the surrounding corn and hog farms, with a coal shaft sunk near the north end of town.

A 1918 history of Montgomery County called Waggoner "a model little community," listing four general stores, two restaurants, a hotel, a bank, a lumber yard, a meat market, a garage, a livery stable, and its own electric light system.

Historic Route 66 passed about a half mile east of Waggoner from 1930 onward, and today Interstate 55 runs just east of the village — but there is no exit for Waggoner, the nearest ramps being about 4 miles away.

Waggoner's population peaked at 307 in 1920 and stayed remarkably steady between roughly 220 and 310 people for more than a century.

The 2020 census counted 181 people in Waggoner, a sharp drop from 266 in 2010; at the 2000 census its 245 residents lived in 93 households.

Waggoner covers only 0.24 square miles, entirely land, and drains south toward tributaries of Horse Creek and Macoupin Creek.

Every year the Waggoner Centennial Players, made up of local citizens, stage a play at the Waggoner Centennial Building — the production celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013 and sells more than 1,000 tickets in a village of about 200 people.