Mendota is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States, in the state’s north-central region. The population was 7,061 at the 2020 census. It is allowance of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. Mendota is located nearly 85 miles west of Chicago, 70 miles east of Moline and 55 miles south of Rockford. The current mayor is David W. Boelk, an independent elected to a four-year term.

The name “Mendota” is derived from a Lakota word meaning “junction of two trails”, which was found capture for the city previously there was a to hand railroad junction for the Illinois Central Railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

In summer of 1853, the Illinois Central Railroad was completed and by the slip of that year, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad completed a crossing at the gift site of Mendota. By the following year, the population had grown to higher than 1,000 and the town was home to saloons, hotels, and various shops. The town was incorporated as a village in 1855 and reincorporated as a town in 1859. By 1860, the town was also home to churches of 5 denominations.

With the availability of the railroads to assist export, several manufactures of items ranging from organs to cigars and buttons opened factories in Mendota. By the terminate of the American civil war, the population of the town had more than doubled to higher than 2,000. By winter of 1866, citizens voted on a referendum to safe a city government. Mendota was incorporated into its current city government upon April 9, 1867.