[3] In October 2006, Odell was featured on the USA Food Network's "Riding Old Route 66", which visited the Standard Oil station.

Interstate 55 passes north and west of the village, with access from Exit 209.

[6] Both men were civil engineers who had worked on the survey and construction of what soon became the Chicago and Alton Railroad.

He rose quickly through the ranks until he became chief engineer of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad.

Gardner came west in 1853 to work as assistant engineer to Oliver H. Lee on the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad.

He purchased land near Dwight and later went on to become Chief Engineer on the Michigan Central Railroad.

[8] The town was platted when it became clear that the railroad would pass through Morgan's and Gardner's land.

An excursion train ran through the town on July 4, 1854, and regular service began in August 1854.

The land on which the town would soon be erected had been first purchased from the government by James C. Spencer and Henry A. Gardner on May 4, 1853.

Through a series of quick transactions, Spencer sold his land to William H. Odell who then transferred it to Sydney S.

[9] The town was surveyed by Thomas F. Norton, deputy surveyor of Livingston County.

Unlike the Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad, built through Livingston County at about the same time, a standard plan with shared street names does not seem to have been used along the Chicago and Mississippi.

For the first year the only inhabitants of the place were railroad employees who manned the station and kept water in the tank.

[13] Slowly a few local merchants were attracted to the townsite; some came from the now-defunct town of New Michigan in northern Livingston County.

David Williams put up a shack and began to sell "a few basketfuls of groceries and notions".

In 1921 the state put under contract a highway paving project for what at first was known as the "Chicago-Springfield East St. Louis Road".

In 1932 Patrick O'Donnell built the Standard Oil and Gasoline Station to serve traffic along the highway; this building has been carefully restored to become a popular stop for visitors touring Route 66.

This highway substantially paralleled both the earlier roads and the original route of the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad.