Come Join Us On The Spoon River Drive,

October 4 & 5 and October 11 & 12!!

Map for Spoon River Drive

The Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive Associates welcomes you to our website and invites you to come to Fulton County, Illinois and enjoy the natural wonders of the Spoon River Valley. Spoon River has carved a wide scenic valley through Fulton County as it flows from London Mills to the south and east where it joins the Illinois River near the southeastern corner of the County. The Spoon River became nationally known from the work of Edgar Lee Masters, author of the noted SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY. The home of Masters still stands in Lewistown, the county seat of Fulton County .

The highways and byways of Fulton County sport the colors of the four seasons and are open to visitors the year around with routes running through London Mills, Farmington, Fairview, Ellisville, Mount Pisgah Park, Smithfield, Cuba, Canton, Avon, Lewistown, Bernadotte, Duncan Mills, Waterford, Ipava, and Astoria. There are over one hundred miles of scenic routes on the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive to be enjoyed.

The unusual beauty of the colors throughout the Spoon River Valley inspired Scenic Drive founders to hold the first Fall Festival and to organize the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive thirty nine years ago. The first weekend of the Scenic Drive brought such great numbers that it was held on a second consecutive weekend back in October of 1968. The Scenic Drive's Fall Festival has since been held each year during the first two full weekends of October. The 2008 Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive will be the 41st Annual Fall Festival and will attract over one hundred thousand visitors to Fulton County over the two weekends.

Fulton County's Spoon River Valley Country offers much to the visitor during the Fall Festival and during other seasons of the year.One finds a public boat dock at London Mills, the lone dam on Spoon River at Bernadotte and breathtaking scenery along the entire course of the Spoon River. Foods have become a tradition during the Fall Festivals; apple butter made before your eyes at London Mills, butterfly pork chops at Mount Pisgah, baked potatoes and hot cider at Farmington, chicken and noodles at Smithfield's Red Brick School, funnel cakes at Lewistown, baked goods at Duncan Mills and the famed Ellisville ham at Ellisville.

The Scenic Drive Associates produces a colorful brochure of the Scenic Drive and its Fall Festival. The brochure, information for those interested in being a sanctioned vendor or other requests for information may be requested electronically from this website by clicking the email links below. Requests from this website will receive our prompt attention in order to provide interested persons with information about the Spoon River Drive, our Fall Festival or other Spoon River Country information.

Checkout our website pages to find out much more about the Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive and Spoon River Country by following the links above. If you desire more information, write to us at Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive, P.O. Box 525, Canton, Illinois 61520 or telephone us at (309) 647-8980. E-mail us at info@spoonriverdrive.org

Vendors interested in setting up on the Drive during the Fall Festival should contact Fall Festival Chairperson Bill Swango, 7838 East IL Highway 95, Smithfield , Illinois 61477 or telephone (309)783-3283. Vendor inquiries by e-mail should be directed to info@spoonriverdrive.org. Much more information for vendors can be found by following the VENDORS link button the top of the page. A Vendor Application Contract Form can be electronically downloaded from the VENDORS page.

Visitors can visit the Fulton County Tourism Council's website for more Fulton County events and information by clicking here for the Fulton County Tourism Council Website.