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Office: Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office – 500 Illinois Avenue, Room A, Mound City, IL 62963 | (618) 748-9374 | Fax (618) 748-9338. Pulaski County Detention Center – 20 Justice Drive, Ullin, IL 62992 (240 beds), off I-57 Exit 181.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: I-57 and SR-37 serve Mound City, the county seat, on the Ohio River near its confluence with the Mississippi, in the region of southern Illinois known as “Little Egypt”; Mounds is the county’s largest city.
Notes: Pulaski County was formed March 3, 1843, from parts of Alexander and Johnson Counties, named for Casimir Pulaski, the Polish military officer who fought and died for American independence during the Revolutionary War.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: Pulaski County Courthouse – Mound City, IL.
Notes: Pulaski County holds genuinely major Civil War historical significance. Mound City was home to large Union naval shipyards supplying the Mississippi Squadron, including the famous ironclad gunboats USS Cairo, USS Cincinnati, and USS Mound City; in April 1862, the gunboat Mound City captured the Confederate vessel Red Rover, which was refitted as a Union hospital ship. Mound City also hosted a major Civil War hospital complex treating both Union and Confederate wounded from battles including Shiloh and Vicksburg. Mound City National Cemetery (established 1864, one of the original twelve U.S. national cemeteries, designed in part by Montgomery C. Meigs; National Register of Historic Places since 1997) holds more than 9,600 interments, over half tied to the Civil War, including more than 2,700 unknown soldiers and 27 Confederate dead; the elaborate 1874-75 Illinois State Soldiers and Sailors Monument, funded by a $25,000 state appropriation, honors more than 2,000 named soldiers and sailors from twenty states. A Memorial Day ceremony held there each year is among the oldest in the region, dating to shortly after the Civil War. Mound City also has a significant African American community history, formerly home to Lovejoy High School (circa 1909-1961), named for abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy, which served Black students before integration in 1962.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: Pulaski County Veterans Assistance – confirm current contact via pulaskicountyil.net.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
Mound City Public Library (Mound City) – confirm current address/phone via the county library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: Mound City National Cemetery (National Register of Historic Places), the Illinois State Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and Civil War naval shipyard heritage sites are the county’s premier heritage attractions.
Notes: The genuine, deeply significant Civil War naval and cemetery history at Mound City is among the most historically important local facts covered anywhere in this project.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: Pulaski County Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via pulaskicountyil.net.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
Confirm current dedicated shelter contact via pulaskicountyil.net; Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office for animal control arrangements.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: Pulaski County Environmental Health – confirm current contact via pulaskicountyil.net.
NOTES: Pulaski County is the sixty-eighth county completed in Illinois’s Round 3 v2 redo, under the A+ sourced standard established for this project. The genuine, deeply significant Civil War naval and cemetery history at Mound City is among the most historically important local facts covered anywhere in this project. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About Pulaski County County
Pulaski County is Illinois’s southern tip Civil War heritage and ancient cypress swamp county – the Union naval cemetery at Mound City and the thousand-year-old bald cypress trees of the Cache River wetlands define a county at the very bottom of Illinois where the landscape and ecology have more in common with the Deep South than with the Illinois prairie.
Mound City (the county seat, population ~500) is Pulaski County’s governmental hub near the Ohio River, a small southern Illinois community whose Civil War naval heritage, national cemetery, and Cache River proximity anchor its identity at the tip of Illinois.
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Pulaski County Supervisor of Assessments at 500 Illinois Avenue, Mound City, IL 62963, phone 618-748-9360. IL assessed at 33.33% of market value.
Courts & Legal
Pulaski County Circuit Court at 500 Illinois Avenue, Mound City, IL 62963, phone 618-748-9360, handles probate.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
500 Illinois Ave., Mound City, IL 62963
(618) 748-9360
CIRCUIT CLERK (Court Records, Marriage Licenses)
500 Illinois Ave., Mound City, IL 62963
(618) 748-9360
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
500 Illinois Ave., Mound City, IL 62963
(618) 748-9360
Genealogy
County-level record sources
Pulaski County Circuit Clerk (probate/estate case files – see Probate section above).
Local societies
No dedicated Pulaski County genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
Where to go
Pulaski County Circuit Clerk 500 Illinois Avenue, Mound City, IL 62963 (618) 748-9300
Pulaski County is Illinois’ southernmost interior county, at the confluence region near the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Illinois has NOT adopted the Uniform Probate Code and is not a community property state – it follows common law property principles. Illinois probate is governed by the Probate Act of 1975 (755 ILCS 5/). Two main paths:
Small Estate Affidavit – for estates where personal property (excluding real estate) is valued at $150,000 or less (raised from $100,000 effective August 15, 2025), with no unresolved debts or claims and no real estate involved. No formal court probate is required.
Formal Probate (Independent or Supervised Administration) – required when the estate doesn’t qualify for the small estate affidavit. Most Illinois probate cases proceed under Independent Administration, letting the estate representative act without prior court approval for most routine actions.
Step 2: filing for formal probate
File the decedent’s original will (if one exists) with the Pulaski County Circuit Clerk, where the decedent resided at death.
Petition the court to open the estate and appoint an executor (if there’s a will) or an administrator (if intestate).
The court issues Letters of Office (Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration) appointing the representative.
Publish notice to creditors and unknown heirs as required by Illinois law.
Under Independent Administration, the representative marshals assets, pays valid debts and taxes, and distributes the remaining estate without needing court approval for each step.
File a final accounting or closing documents to formally close the estate.
What it costs
Illinois imposes its own state estate tax on estates valued above $4 million, with rates up to 16%. There is no Illinois inheritance tax.
Filing fees vary by county – confirm current amounts with the Pulaski County Circuit Clerk.
Most uncontested probate proceedings in Illinois can be completed within about a year.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
500 Illinois Ave., Mound City, IL 62963
(618) 748-9421
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
COUNTY CLERK (Records, Vital Records, Elections)
500 Illinois Ave., Mound City, IL 62963
(618) 748-9360
ELECTIONS (County Clerk)
500 Illinois Ave., Mound City, IL 62963
(618) 748-9360
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
Pulaski County Health Dept
(618) 748-9430
IL DCFS — Cairo
(618) 734-3401
IL Medicaid
(800) 843-6154
Heartland Regional Medical Center (Marion)
heartlandregional.com
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: Pulaski County Health Department – confirm current contact via pulaskicountyil.net.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
County Seat: Mound City
Population: 5,500
Area: 201 sq mi
Established: 1843
Public Records
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