Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Gorham, IL

Gorham is a village in Jackson County, Illinois, known locally above all for its near-annihilation by the deadly Tri-State Tornado of 1925, the deadliest tornado in American history.

When the tornado struck Gorham at 2:26 p.m. on March 18, 1925, it destroyed 60 of the town's 80 houses outright and damaged the other 20, wrecked the train depot and every storefront, and tore the top two floors off the school, leaving only the first floor standing.

Thirty-four people were killed in Gorham by the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, part of a storm that killed 695 people across Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.

Gorham was incorporated on February 13, 1913, and its population actually grew after the tornado, peaking at 595 in the 1940 census.

The village sits in the middle of the Mississippi River floodplain in a low area known locally as 'the Bottoms' — among the most fertile farming land in the Midwest, but flood-prone, and Gorham was threatened again during the Great Flood of 1993.

Native American petroglyphs are etched into the cliffs on the north side of the landform near Gorham, evidence of the area's long human history.

The 2020 census counted just 173 people in Gorham, down from 256 in 2000, and the 2000 census recorded 101 households in the village.

Major League Baseball outfielder Joe Grace, who played for the St. Louis Browns and Washington Senators, was born in Gorham.