NEW MARKER–Members of the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition are pictured with the new Robert Kidd/Boxtown marker on the trail. Pictured are: Leanne Arnold, County Highway Engineer Aaron Metzger, City of Waterloo Mayor Thomas Smith, Monroe County Commissioner Dennis Knobloch and Andrea Childers.
On Wednesday, Nov. 25, members of the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition unveiled the newest marker along the trail, commemorating Robert Kidd and the area where Boxtown once was.
Before being named Boxtown, the area was called Kidd, after Robert Kidd. Kidd was an American Revolutionary war soldier who served under Colonel George Rogers Clark and helped capture Kaskaskia during the war. After the war, he returned to the Bottoms and settled this area. Members of the local Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution chapters were also present at the unveiling to honor Kidd.
Boxtown was a small town that only had a school, grocery store, tavern, train depot and dance hall. Now, there is nothing but vacant land. Former residents of the small town joined in the unveiling as well, as they fondly remember the good times had together.
The Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail Coalition’s mission is to promote, preserve, protect and develop the historic, architectural, cultural and natural heritage of the Kaskaskia-Cahokia Trail, and therefore, sought to give this town the recognition it deserved as an important piece of the region’s history. The new historic marker for Kidd (aka Boxtown) can be found at a roadside pull-off at the intersection of Kaskaskia and Stringtown Roads.
For more on this story, please see this week’s print edition.