Several hundred people headed to a remote valley in western McDonough County on a glorious Autumn day for an open house at Vishnu Springs. The group Friends of Vishnu hosts an open house every few years because people remain interested in the former health retreat.
“I think there is a mystique about his place. It’s that hotel that’s hidden in the valley,” said Marla Vizdal, a member and former co-chair of the Friends group. “The whole story (of Vishnu Springs) is interesting. The way it was developed. The story of the people who were behind it.”
She said some visitors attend the open houses because they have heard about Vishnu Springs and want to see it for themselves, and she said some people are drawn to the site because they think it’s haunted.
Vizdal spent 33 years working at the Western Illinois University Archives “…so I have a lot of historical information about this place.” And she said the Friends group is still doing research and trying to learn more about Vishnu Springs’ history.
More information about Vishnu Springs can be found on the Vishnu Springs website and Facebook page.
Vizdal said the group made a video recording of the upper floors of the Capitol Hotel building and showed the video during this year’s open house. “So now people can see what it looks like upstairs – the devastation, the graffiti, and why they can’t go upstairs.”
The 140-acre Vishnu Springs site is now owned by the Western Illinois University Foundation and is officially known as the Ira and Reatha T. Post Wildlife Sanctuary.
Vizdal said Friends of Vishnu is an independent, grassroots organization that is not affiliated with the WIU Foundation. She said the group and the Foundation have a good working relationship.
