Horseshoe Lake State Park

Horseshoe Lake, a National Natural Landmark, is located in the American Bottom of Illinois within the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, is 2,400 acres (10 km2) in size, and is the second-largest natural lake in Illinois after Lake Michigan. An oxbow lake which is a remnant of a Mississippi River meander, the lake's elevation is 403 feet (123 m) above sea level. The lake is the site of Horseshoe Lake State Park, which is 2,960 acres (12 km2) in size. The lake is bordered by the towns of Madison and Granite City. The lake is located within Nameoki Township, about four miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. The lake is very shallow, about three feet (1 m) deep throughout most of the lake, but there is one deep spot, about 54.5 feet (16 m) deep, due to dredging for sand in years past. The lake is annually drained in part to provide habitat for shorebirds. At least 287 bird species have been found at this lake, which includes most of the species found statewide. Canada geese winter here, as well as bald eagles. Other prominent birds include the mallard duck, snowy egret and little blue heron, and the Eurasian tree sparrow, limited to this region in North America. Fish species include bluegill, sunfish, shortnose gar, spotted gar, crappie, largemouth bass and channel catfish. The western part of the lake is industrialized, dominated by the Granite City Works facility of the United States Steel Corporation.

Nameoki Township is located in Madison County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 12,685 and it contained 5,352 housing units.

The Horseshoe Lake Mound and Village Site is a pre-Columbian archaeological site located on the northeast shore of Horseshoe Lake in Madison County, Illinois. The site includes a platform temple mound and a village site with the remains of multiple houses. The site was inhabited by Mississippian peoples during the Late Woodland period from roughly 600-1050 A.D. The village at the site was part of the settlement system connected to Cahokia; it was a third line community, a class of community distinguished by a single temple mound, in the system. Of the five known third line communities in the Cahokia system, the Horseshoe Lake Site is the only one which is relatively intact. The site also includes substantial plant and animal remains, which indicate that its settlers produced maize.The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 26, 1980.

The Mitchell Archaeological Site is a pre-Columbian archaeological site located at the western end of University Drive in Mitchell, Illinois. The site includes a platform mound and the remains of a village; while it once included several other mounds, they have been destroyed by modern activity. Mississippian peoples inhabited the site c. 1150–1200. The site is affiliated with the Cahokia settlement system and was the largest site in the system except for Cahokia itself. However, the majority of the site was destroyed by the construction of Interstate 270; known information about the site mainly comes from salvage excavations conducted before the highway was built.The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 7, 1978.

Fairmont City is a village in St. Clair and Madison counties, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,265 at the 2020 census, down from 2,635 in 2010. In the 1990s Fairmont City's Hispanic population doubled, and as of 2020, over 79% of the population was of Hispanic descent.

The Emmert-Zippel House is a historic house located at 3279 Maryville Road in Granite City, Illinois. William Emmert built the house in 1837. He married the following year. Then, he and his family lived in the house. At the time, the house was located in a rural setting in Granite City, which was then known as Six Mile due to its distance from St. Louis. The house is a five-bay I-house, a housing style named for its popularity in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. I-houses, including the Emmert-Zippel House, were two-story structures with two rooms on each floor connected by a central hall and staircase. Emmert lived in the house until 1881, and his family sold the house to August and Elizabeth Zippel in 1884. The Zippel family lived in the house until 1984, when the Old Six Mile Historical Society bought the house and made it a museum, known as the Old Six Mile Museum.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1996.

The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed c. 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville. The park covers 2,200 acres (890 ha), or about 3.5 square miles (9 km2), and contains about 80 manmade mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. At its apex around 1100 CE, the city covered about 6 square miles (16 km2) and included about 120 earthworks in a wide range of sizes, shapes, and functions.Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the Central and the Southeastern United States, beginning more than 1,000 years before European contact. Today, the Cahokia Mounds are considered to be the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great pre-Columbian cities in Mexico. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a designated site for state protection. It is also one of the 24 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States. The largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico, the site is open to the public and administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Division and supported by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. In celebration of the 2018 Illinois state bicentennial, the Cahokia Mounds were selected as one of the Illinois 200 Great Places by the American Institute of Architects Illinois component (AIA Illinois). It was recognized by USA Today Travel magazine, as one of the selections for 'Illinois 25 Must See Places'.

Granite City High School is a public high school in Granite City, Illinois, serves those living in Granite City, Madison, Pontoon Beach and Mitchell.

Granite City Township is located in Madison County, Illinois, in the United States. Granite City Township was founded in 1896, close to the Mississippi River. It quickly became an industrialized city due to its access to the Mississippi River and railroads. Granite City's population has long relied on its steel mill (Granite City Steel) as a source of income. As of the 2020 census, its population was 27,549.

Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population was 27,549 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and Southern Illinois regions, behind Belleville and O'Fallon. Officially founded in 1896, Granite City was named by the Niedringhaus brothers, William and Frederick, who established it as a steel making company town for the manufacture of graniteware kitchen utensils.

Pontoon Beach is a village in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,876 at the 2020 census. It is part of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Gateway Regional Medical Center is an American hospital in Granite City, Illinois. It contains 305 licensed beds, 100 of which are for treatment of acute mental illness in the behavioral health unit. The hospital and its predecessors have served the greater Madison County area for more than 100 years.