Massac County, Illinois

Massac County is a county in Illinois, United States, about 13 miles southeast of Paducah,
Kentucky, on the north bank of the Ohio River. It had a population of 14,169 at the 2020 census,
an estimated 13,865 by 2024, and covers 237 square miles (610 km2) centred near 37°13′N 88°43′W.

Metropolis is the county seat and the county’s largest city; its postal code is 62960.
The county holds 2 cities, 1 village and 7 unincorporated communities, and it runs on Central
Time. Massac is one of 17 Illinois counties with no civil township government — the county
is instead divided into 16 election precincts, which carry out no administrative functions of
their own.

Towns & Villages in Massac County

Massac County has 10 named places on record: 3 incorporated cities and villages and 7
unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. Unincorp. covers crossroads,
former rail stops and rural communities with no formal boundary.

The county’s three incorporated places sit on or near the Ohio River, in a line running
southeast from Metropolis through Joppa. Mermet takes its name from the adjoining Mermet Lake
State Fish and Wildlife Area, a 2,630-acre cypress-swamp waterfowl refuge just north of the
community.

ZIP Codes

• 62960 — Metropolis (county seat)
• 62910 — Brookport
• 62953 — Joppa

Big Bay, Boaz, Hillerman, Mermet, New Columbia, Shady Grove and Unionville have no post office
or ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under Metropolis’s or Joppa’s code
depending on location.

Geography

Massac County sits in Illinois’ southern tip, the region known locally as “Little
Egypt,” on the north bank of the Ohio River across from Paducah, Kentucky. Of its 242
square miles, 237 are land and 4.6 are water, about 1.9 percent — most of that water is the
Ohio River itself, which forms the county’s entire southern boundary. Part of the Shawnee
National Forest reaches into the county’s northern edge, and Mermet Lake State Fish and
Wildlife Area covers wetland in the county’s interior.

Pope County lies to the north,
Johnson County
to the northwest, Pulaski County
to the west, and across the Ohio River, McCracken County,
Kentucky, to the south and Livingston
County, Kentucky, to the east.

Demographics

Massac County had a population of 14,169 at the 2020 census, and the latest Census Bureau
estimate puts the county near 13,865 residents as of 2024, a continued decline typical of rural
southern Illinois. Metropolis and Brookport are the two largest communities, together holding
just under half the county’s population. Median household income runs $65,116 (2024),
below Illinois’s statewide 2023 ACS figure of $80,306. About 16.3 percent of residents live
below the poverty line, above the national average of 12.5 percent. Population density works out
to roughly 58 people per square mile of land, low even by downstate Illinois standards.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance is the county’s largest employment sector, with 934
workers, followed by retail trade at 698 and public administration at 505. Massac Memorial
Hospital, a 25-bed critical access facility in Metropolis established in 1956, is a major local
employer, offering emergency care, cardiac rehabilitation and imaging. Harrah’s Metropolis
riverboat casino draws regional visitors and staff from across the Paducah metro area. The
Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility, on Metropolis’s outskirts, converts
uranium for nuclear fuel and is one of the county’s largest industrial employers. Joppa
Generating Station, a coal and natural-gas power plant west of Joppa, has long anchored that
community’s economy. Agriculture remains significant across the county’s farmland.
The county’s biggest annual event is the Superman Celebration in Metropolis each June,
built around the city’s official status as Superman’s hometown and its 15-foot bronze
statue of the character outside the courthouse.

History

Massac County was organized on 8 February 1843, carved from Johnson County, and named for
Fort Massac, a French fortification built nearby in 1757 and renamed in 1759 to honor Claude
Louis d’Espinchal, Marquis de Massiac, France’s naval minister. The Chickasaw
destroyed the original fort after the French abandoned it; the United States rebuilt it in 1794
during the Northwest Indian War. Colonel George Rogers Clark passed near the site in 1778 on his
way to capturing Illinois for Virginia, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition stopped there in the
fall of 1803 to recruit volunteers. General James Wilkinson and Vice President Aaron Burr met at
the fort in 1805, in discussions later tied to the Burr Conspiracy. The 1811–12 New Madrid
earthquakes damaged the fort, and the Army decommissioned it in 1814. Illinois made the site its
first state park in 1908; a 2002 reconstruction depicts the fort as it stood in 1802, and the
Fort Massac Encampment each fall draws reenactors interpreting 18th-century frontier life.

Getting There

Interstate 24 crosses the county’s western half on its way to the Brookport Bridge over
the Ohio River. US Route 45 runs north–south through Metropolis, and Illinois Routes 145
and 169 cross the county.

• Paducah, Kentucky — about 13 miles southeast
• Marion — about 30 miles north
• Vienna — about 12 miles northwest
• Cairo — about 40 miles southwest

Barkley Regional Airport, in Paducah about 13 miles from Metropolis, is the nearest commercial
airport. No Amtrak line serves Massac County; the nearest station is in Carbondale, roughly 50
miles north.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Massac County located?
It sits in Illinois’ southern tip on the Ohio River, about 13 miles southeast of Paducah,
Kentucky, bordered by Pope, Johnson and Pulaski counties in Illinois and McCracken and Livingston
counties in Kentucky.

What is the population of Massac County?
14,169 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 13,865.

How big is Massac County?
242 square miles (630 km2) total, of which 237 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of Massac County?
Metropolis, organized in 1843, is the county seat and the county’s largest city.

How many towns and cities are in Massac County?
Three incorporated places — Metropolis, Brookport and Joppa — plus seven
unincorporated communities: Big Bay, Boaz, Hillerman, Mermet, New Columbia, Shady Grove and
Unionville.

What ZIP codes does Massac County use?
62960 for Metropolis, 62910 for Brookport and 62953 for Joppa.

What is Massac County known for?
Metropolis’s official status as Superman’s hometown and its annual Superman
Celebration, and Fort Massac State Park, Illinois’s first state park and a stop on the
Lewis and Clark Expedition.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Illinois.