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Monsanto Corporation plant, S. 19th at Monsanto Avenue - August 2001.

Sauget, Illinois
This is the village of Sauget.

I mean that almost literally. Aside from a small knot of trailers and small houses just south of here and a knot of nightclubs along Highway 3, this is virtually the entire town.

Standing at the southern end of 19th Street, Sauget is a bizarre land where business reigns supreme. Incorporated by the Monsanto company to avoid taxation from East St. Louis, the town has an "anything goes" attitude towards industry, and is willing to take on the Not In My Back Yard projects that other cities reject. As a result, its population of 250 people enjoys an enormous tax base, and the resultant clean streets, a large and well-kept park, and their own village hall and police and fire forces.

The flip side is that they live in one of the most polluted cities in the area. East St. Louis's neighbor to the south spews pollutants at the city's inhabitants day and night and gives them zero tax revenue in return.


South along Highway 3 - November 2007.


Acres of parking around OZ Nightclub - November 2007.

The village is mostly known to St. Louis residents through this view, the open lands along Highway 3. It's a popular route to the Illinois towns to the southeast, as well as home to nightclubs OZ, Pops, PT's and Penthouse.

The Cahokia power plant is another well-known landmark, highly visible across the river.

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