Twenty-nine people. A bend of the Ohio. A name that used to be Nebraska.
Alton sits in Boone Township, Crawford County, Indiana, just below the mouth of Little Blue River. James Gaither recorded the plat on 5 July 1838 — about eighty-six acres of riverfront. For a while the place was Nebraska. The post office opened under that name in 1847 and became Alton in 1860. The town incorporated on 28 September 1872. Census counts tell the rest: 277 in 1890, 238 in 1900, then a long decline to 55 in 2010 and 29 in 2020. Mills and flatboats once shipped lumber and sugar paddles toward New Orleans. The post office closed in 1965. ZIP 47137 and area code 812 remain. This page is a civic reading desk. It is not the Illinois river city, and it is not the county clerk.