Downey Mine was sunk on the land entered by Mark Redman in the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 26 of Blairsville Township, in 1900. Mr. Downey, who sank the mine, also built 15 houses on the west side of what is now the Carterville—Colp Road. The village was never laid out or incorporated. They were company houses, rented to men working in Downey Mine. There were never more than 60 people in the camp. There was no company “store and supplies were bought in Colp, Dewmaine or Carterville.
The mine closed in 1920. Mr. Downey was bankrupt and the houses were all torn down except one. A Negro family lived in it for ten or twelve years and it burned. Nothing remains of Downey. The mine foundations have been dug up and the area is under cultivation.
(Ghost Towns of Southern Illinois, by Glenn J. Sneed, published 1977)