Odell is a village in Livingston County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,046 at the 2010 census. Media In October 2006, Odell was featured on the USA Food Network's "Riding Old Route 66", which visited the Standard Oil station. Geography Odell is in northern Livingston County, in the northern part of Odell Township. Interstate 55 passes north and west of the village, with access from Exit 209. I-55 leads northeast to Dwight and to downtown Chicago, while to the southwest it leads to Pontiac, the Livingston county seat, and to Bloomington. Historic US 66 passes through the northwest side of the village, on an older bypass than I-55. According to the 2010 census, Odell has a total area of , of which (or 98.58%) is land and (or 1.42%) is water. History Founding Odell was laid out by Sydney S. Morgan (1823 – 1884) and Henry A. Gardner (1816 – 1875) on August 10, 1856. Both men were railroad engineers who had worked on the survey and construction of what soon became the Chicago and Alton Railroad. For a time Sydney S. Morgan divided his time between Joliet and Odell, but soon settled in Odell on a permanent basis where he became the town's chief promoter. Gardner was born in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and had begun his railroad career working as a rodman on an extension of the Great Western Railroad in Massachusetts. He rose quickly through the ranks until he became chief engineer of the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad. Gardner came west in 1853 to work as assistant engineer to Oliver H. Lee on the Chicago and Mississippi Railroad. He purchased land near Dwight and later went on to become Chief Engineer on the Michigan Central Railroad. Gardner was never a resident of Odell. The town was platted when it became clear that the railroad would pass through Morgan's and Gardner's land. The railroad was originally known as the Chicago and Mississippi, but quickly became the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis, and then the Chicago and Alton. An excursion train ran through the town on July 4, 1854, and regular service began in August 1854. Before the coming of the railroad, the land which became Odell Township was completely unsettled. Between 1852 and 1855 almost all of the land in the township was entered, and farms were rapidly developed. The land on which the town would soon be