Founded in 1827 on 60 acres of land donated by Guy W. Smith and 20 acres donated by Dan W. Beckwith, Danville is the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. It became a major industrial city in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries. From the 1850s to the 1940s, Danville was an important coal mining area. With the closure of the mines, Danville's economic base suffered until the former mines were converted into lakes, creating fishing and recreation opportunities at parks such as Kickapoo State Recreation Area (3000 acres and three miles to the south) and Kennekuk Cove County Park (3000 acres and five miles to the west).
Kennekuk County Park is an oak-hickory forest type with native tall grass prairie areas. It contains three Illinois Nature Preserves within its boundaries (Windfall Prairie, Horseshoe Bottoms and Fairchild Cemetery). You’ll find two floors with more than 5,000 exhibits ranging from the Revolutionary War to Iraqi Freedom at Danville’s Vermilion County War Museum. There are 4,000 books and hundreds of uniforms from all branches of the military and all wars. Let us not mistake it that Vermilion museum with the Vermilion County Museum, a renowned Lincoln Site on the National Register of Historic Places. The home in which the Museum is housed was built by pioneer physician William Fithian. Lincoln was often a visitor at that home and indeed slept there in the Lincoln Room when came to Danville for one of his last visits on September 21, 1858. We can’t promise we’ll ever name a room after you when you stay at one of our Choice Hotels in Danville, IL, but we’ll guarantee you’ll feel at home with great amenities and kind hospitality. Book a room online now!