The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The village is named for Michel or Pierre Bureau. Their original surname was probably Belleau, but local aboriginals may have had difficulty pronouncing the "l" sound. One or both of the brothers ran a trading post near where Big Bureau Creek empties into the Illinois River from 1776 until 1780 or 1790. A man named Buero, of mixed French and Native American descent, and possibly a descendant of one of the earlier Bureau brothers, was operating in this area as a fur trader in 1821.
In 1874 Bureau Junction had a sizeable railroad operation as the halfway point on the railroad between Chicago and Rock Island. The former Rock Island depot still exists today, albeit abandoned.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Bureau Junction’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bureau Junction’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Bureau Junction, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Bureau Junction is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Bureau Junction has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Putnam County Courthouse in Hennepin, 2.7 miles away.
Bureau Junction and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.