Editing Pana, Illinois (section)

==History==
[[File:Pana, Illinois (1913).jpg|thumb|left|Tracks and depots of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]] and [[Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad]] in Pana, 1913]]

The area around Pana was first organized as Stone Coal Precinct in 1845.  The county's precincts became townships in 1856, and Stone Coal Precinct became [[Pana Township, Christian County, Illinois]]. In 1857 the village of Pana was incorporated.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Young |first=Chris |title=Museum-in-progress to focus on Pana history |url=https://eu.sj-r.com/story/news/state/2012/07/17/museum-in-progress-to-focus/41733304007/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122213328/https://www.sj-r.com/story/news/state/2012/07/17/museum-in-progress-to-focus/41733304007/ |archive-date=2024-01-22 |access-date=2024-01-22 |work=[[The State Journal-Register]]}}</ref>  The name "Pana" is believed to have been derived from the indigenous tribe, the [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Illinois Central Magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3WI3AQAAMAAJ&pg=PT49|year=1922|publisher=Illinois Central Railroad Company|page=44}}</ref> It developed at the intersection of east–west and north–south railroads, and had supplies of fuel and water for the [[steam engine]]s of the [[railroad]].

Pana was recognized as a sundown town.<ref>https://justice.tougaloo.edu/sundowntown/pana-il/</ref>

The community became a center of coal mining in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In April 1899, what is known as the [[Pana riot]] broke out after a violent confrontation between black and white miners. Initially a white man was killed (by a policeman, it was later discovered), and white union miners attacked black replacement workers who had been recruited from [[Alabama]]. Six additional people were killed: one white (likely also shot by a white man) and five blacks; in addition, six more black miners were wounded. While the immediate violence was quelled, blacks felt tremendous hostility. Rather than return to Alabama and the [[Jim Crow]] South, from where they had been recruited, 211 of the nearly 300 African Americans remaining in town moved west to [[Weir, Kansas]], to work at another mine.<ref name="lenstra">{{Cite web | title=The African-American mining experience in Illinois from 1800 to 1920| author=N. Lenstra |date=2009 |url=http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/9578/BlackMinersIllinois.pdf?sequence=2| publisher= University of Illinois IDEALS }}</ref>

Pana came to be known as the City of Roses, a nickname coined by local newsmen, the Jordan Brothers.  Many major florists and growers set up shop here. At one time, there were 109 greenhouses in Pana.

[[Kitchell Park]] was added to the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 1992. The [[Louis Jehle House]], added to the National Register in 1995, is also located in Pana.