Cuba was laid out in 1834 by a settler named Ephraim Brown and was originally called Middletown because of its location in the middle of Fulton County. Other entrepreneurs decided to plat their own town, but across an alley from Middletown. Theirs was called Centerville and in 1836 the towns consolidated as Centerville. In 1853 Centerville changed its name to Cuba and was incorporated as such. There is no firm historical reason that explains why the name of Cuba was chosen.

Fulton County is underlain by coal and Cuba was surrounded by the resource as seen in this map of the Illinois State Geological survey (black dots are mines; green represents surface mining areas; orange represents underground mining areas). The Fulton County Coal Company was organized in 1870 and was located near the Toledo-Peoria-and- Western Railway depot in town. More shaft mines were opened in association with railroad tracks, including the Chicago-Burlington-and-Quincy line. English miners are known to have arrived in Cuba by 1880. Immigrant miners from other European countries soon followed. Over the ensuring three decades Cuba’s mining was deep shaft and mining brought a building boom in the early twentieth century. There was a 1903 experiment with strip mining but it didn’t really take hold until 1936. The last shaft mine operated in 1941. Cuba became known as the strip mining capital of the world. But when the strip mines closed, Cuba’s economy was severely impacted. A population decline began in the late 1970s and continued. The busy commerce around the town square collapsed in measure. But some of the old buildings remain as a reminder of better days when a range of businesses thrived to serve the residents. And farming never disappeared.

This memorial was set up by Rowlands Mine on their strip mine. It is less then two miles west of Cuba, at the intersection of I-95 and Depler Springs Road (red dot).

An Amish community lives in this area and runs an excellent Heartland bulk foods grocery store on the opposite (north) side of I-95 at 20177 N Depler Spring Rd. They are open M-F 8-5 and Sat. 8-3. 

Cuba’s dual identity of farmers (including the Amish) and miners can be seen in this old banner.

An almost intact side of Cuba’s town square gives a sense of the once flourishing community. The remaining once beautiful buildings could be restored but this would take money and skill. (The low buiding in the middle could be remediated by removing its vertical paneling and awning). Sadly, mere months after the photo below was taken the building that is the third from the left was torn down (October 2023) because it was structurally unsound.

In the cleaned up but gaping space creative use could be made at minimal cost, such as a community garden and painted murals on all three sides. With significant investment a new building could be inserted. One would hope it would conform to the streetscape. 

The highlight of Cuba today is its pretty park with bandstand in the town square and its exceptional ice cream parlor and coffee shop on the south side of the square. 

Cuba’s townscape and countryside landscape suggest the history briefly presented above.