Pope county is located on the eastern tip of extreme southern Illinois with the Ohio River serving as its southern boundary.
The county was first formed out of parts of Gallatin County and Johnson County in 1816. It is named in honor of Nathaniel Pope, the former Secretary of the Illinois Territory.
Southern Illinois is known as "Little Egypt". This moniker came as a result of the hard winter of 1830-1831. While the northern part of the counties had a failed corn crop, the southern counties came to the rescue. Farmers in the north often remarked they were, like the sons of Jacob, "going down to Egypt for corn".
The county seat is Golconda and the county population on July 1, 1999, was 4,811, an increase of 438 over the 1990 census.
For information on county government, contact the National Association of Counties Web site.
Additional information is available at these pages:
