It is situated halfway between the Indiana and Missouri borders on what was originally the Vincennes-St. Louis Road, now U.S. Highway 50.

Interstate 57 passes through the west side of Salem, with access from Exit 116 (US 50); the Interstate leads northeast 45 miles (72 km) to Effingham and south 21 miles (34 km) to Mount Vernon.

Via Crooked Creek, Salem is part of the Kaskaskia River watershed.

Public schools: Salem is home to four buildings on the National Register of Historic Places: the Charles and Naomi Bachmann House, the Badollet House, the William Jennings Bryan Boyhood Home, and Grace Methodist Church.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address on May 3, 1934, dedicating a statue of William Jennings Bryan created by Gutzon Borglum.

The statue originally stood in Washington, D.C., but was displaced by highway construction in 1961 and moved to Salem, Bryan's birthplace, with formal Congressional approval in 1974.