Rural areas throughout America are rapidly depopulationg and nowhere is it more apparent, and acute, than in Cairo, Illinois. Situated at the southern tip of Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, Cairo, once an economic powerhouse, is now a city overrun by kudzu and depleted by population flight. The decay is evident in the empty signs and buildings. Theater marquis have nothing to say and buses no longer move.

Two housing complexes are being shut down resulting in a large portion of the population moving to neighboring towns. Schools, with diminishing student bodies, are hanging on by their fingernails. Cairo, a city steeped in history, is slowly finding itself becoming just that: history.