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Boone County, Illinois

37 topographic sheets cover 18 settlements here, and 6 properties are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Research this county

From the record

6 National Register listings published here.

Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service

Illinois within the United States
Boone County within Illinois

What the record shows

  • 253 topographic sheet readings cover the county's settlements.
  • 6 properties here are on the National Register of Historic Places: 4 buildings and 2 districts.
  • 1 of the 6 listings was added during the 1970s.
  • The Geographic Names Information System records 18 populated places in this county; 18 are covered by at least one topographic sheet.

Places on the National Register

6

Every property in this county listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with the year it was listed and the federal nomination document.

Photograph PropertyType ListedReference
Belvidere High Schoolbuilding199797000815
Belvidere North State Street Historic Districtdistrict201212000324
Belvidere South State Street Historic Districtdistrict201212000325
Lampert-Wildflower Housebuilding200505000870
Pettit Memorial Chapelbuilding197878001112
United States Post Office-Belviderebuilding200000000473

Wildfire, 2012

1 fire

Every wildfire the federal occurrence database records inside this county: 1 of them, burning about 2 acres. None started naturally and none was recorded as arson. Each settlement page carries the fires within five miles of it.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

The five largest, by the area the report gives. None of them was recorded as arson.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
18 July 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesELICA

Every settlement page carries the fires within five miles of it - see the settlement index below.

Storms, 1959 to 2026

60 of 267 shown

The NOAA Storm Events Database holds 267 reports for this county, causing 26 deaths, 454 injuries and about $8,258,000 in recorded property damage. Each settlement page carries the reports that name it.

Kind of event Reports
Thunderstorm Wind139
Hail65
Tornado25
Flood16
Flash Flood14
Heavy Rain5
Lightning2
Funnel Cloud1

The most serious of them, by death, then injury, then recorded damage. The accounts are quoted exactly as the forecast office filed them.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 1967Tornado (F4)not stated24 killed, 410 hurt, $250,000no account filed
March 2023Tornado (EF1)Irene1 killed, 40 hurtThis tornado crossed into Boone County south of Cherry Valley from Winnebago County. The tornado, which originated in Ogle County, traversed northeastward doing minor damage to farms. As it moved through the town of Belvidere, the storm produced multiple instances of damage to businesses, homes, and trees. Included in this is the partial roof collapse of the Apollo Theatre downtown which resulted in one fatality and 40 injuries. From there, the tornado would travel another 7 miles doing additional damage to trees before lifting near Orth Rd just west of the Boone-McHenry county line.
August 2001LightningCapron1 killedno account filed
January 2008Tornado (EF3)Poplar Grove4 hurt, $2,000,000A tornado touched down at 330 pm CST about 1.2 miles north of Poplar Grove in Boone County and ended at 348 pm about 3.2 miles north northeast of Harvard in McHenry County. The tornado crossed the Boone McHenry County line near Hunter Road, about 3 miles northeast of Capron. The first signs of damage were at Quail Trap Road just east of Poplar Grove Road where trees were damaged and sections of roofing were removed from a shed. The tornado intensified to EF2 intensity at Edwards Apple Orchard on Centerville Road. A large barn was destroyed and other buildings were severely damaged. Large trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado reached its maximum intensity of EF3 at the northeast corner of Centerville Road and Beaverton Road. A two story farm house and garage were leveled and large trees were stripped of all branches. The tornado was about 100 yards wide through this area. The tornado continued east northeast across Stimes Road and eventually crossed the Boone McHenry County line near Hunter Road. Most of the damage through this part of the tornado path was EF1, though it weakened to EF0 near the county line. There was damage to trees, power lines, barns and sheds. A few farm houses had shingles or small sections of roof damaged. Four injuries were reported.
November 2010Tornado (EF2)Argyle$4,500,000A tornado which touched down in eastern Winnebago County, crossed into western Boone County and moved across largely open rural fields towards the town of Caledonia. Significant damage occurred to at least six buildings in Caledonia, with approximately 20 additional buildings sustaining minor damage. Several large trees were snapped or uprooted, and a grain bin partially collapsed. The tornado was again likely at EF2 intensity at this time. The tornado then continued northeast from Caledonia, downing several power poles and causing damage ranging from blown off roofs to completely destroying at least three farm outbuildings. One of these buildings, located two miles northwest of Capron, had also been damaged during the January 2008 tornado. The tornado then crossed into McHenry County.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$400,000Huge trees and 40 to 50 power lines blown down. A roof was blown off a house and a semi trailer was blown over.
April 2014HailBelvidere$250,000Hail to two inches in diameter was estimated on Route 76 near Poplar Grove Airport. Shopping centers in the area reported heavy damage from hail. A Walmart had 129 skylights damaged or broken while a ShopKo was also damaged by the hail.
April 2015Tornado (EF1)Herbert$150,000Witnesses said the tornado touched down in a field then moved northeast destroying a detached garage. The tornado ripped the roof off of a home though the walls mainly remained intact. Several hardwood trees were snapped. Maximum wind speeds were estimated to be 110 mph. (Tornado 6 of 7).
May 2017Tornado (EF1)Belvidere Arpt$100,000A tornado touched down approximately two miles south of Poplar Grove. Tree branches were broken on Poplar Grove Road where the tornado touched down. A large softwood tree trunk was snapped on Beaver Road. Trees were debarked on Beaverton Road. A small outbuilding was destroyed on Edson Road. Hardwood trees were snapped at the trunk on Russellville Road and again on Capron Road. On the east side of Capron, A garage was destroyed and shingles were peeled off the north side of a home and dozens of trees were snapped. Another small outbuilding was destroyed on County Line Road with debris strewn about three quarters of a mile downstream. The tornado passed into McHenry County on County Line Road south of Hunter Road.
June 2017Flash FloodHunter$100,000Very heavy rain fell across Boone County during the evening hours of June 28th. Numerous roads were flooded, closed and impassable due to flash flooding. Many county roads were also flooded and closed. Significant flooding was reported on many roads in Belvidere where there were water rescues from stranded vehicles. Ditches were overflowing onto Genoa Road. Storm total rainfall reports included 4.95 inches 2 miles northwest of Belvidere and 4.70 inches in Belvidere.
August 2007Flash FloodBelvidere$100,000Several roads and many basements were flooded after 4 to 6 inches of rain fell over southern Boone County in a short period of time. Motorists flooded on Appleton Road near Route 20.
April 2015Tornado (EF1)Irene$75,000This is a continuation of a tornado that began in Dekalb County. This tornado was identified from a storm chaser video and survey. Three barns were destroyed on Pearl Street Road. Maximum winds speeds were estimated to be 110 mph. (Tornado 4b of 7).
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPoplar Grove$45,000Over 30 large trees were reported down in the Poplar Grove and Candlewick Lake area, including one tree that fell onto a house on Bounty Drive in Candlewick Lake and a tree that fell onto a car in Poplar Grove. Also in Poplar Grove, a roof was blown off of a house and a garage was destroyed.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindPoplar Grove$25,000A roof was blown off of a house and a garage was destroyed.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$25,000Numerous trees fell across Belvidere causing damage to powerlines and roofs. One tree fell against a house on Garden Drive while another fell onto a roof on East Lincoln Avenue.
June 2008Tornado (EF1)Irene$25,000A tornado touched down southwest of the intersection of Bloods Point Road and Stone Quarry Road. The tornado snapped and uprooted trees and damaged or destroyed farm buildings. The tornado moved northeast and crossed Pearl Street where a hay barn collapsed and a large grain bin was damaged. The tornado passed over Route 4 near Huber Road then finally lifted southwest of Interstate 90 near Fruit Farm Road.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindCapron$25,000Trees and tree limbs were blown down. A house and a truck were damaged in Capron.
April 1991Tornado (F0)not stated$25,000no account filed
June 1984Tornado (F1)not stated$25,000no account filed
September 1959Tornado (F1)not stated$25,000no account filed
July 2016Flash FloodBelvidere$24,000Multiple roads flooded and closed on the south side of town. Belvidere Police Department had to replace a police car damaged by flood waters.
April 2015Tornado (EF0)Belvidere$20,000This was a satellite tornado that formed from the same storm that formed the long tracked EF-4 tornado. A small zoo was heavily damaged with walls collapsed on several outbuildings and small barns. Three animals were killed. Softwood trees 4 to 6 inches in diameter were snapped. The estimated peak wind was 85 mph. (Tornado 5 of 7).
July 2013Thunderstorm WindCaledonia$20,000Several large trees fell onto three homes in Candlewick Lake Subdivision near Poplar Grove. A large tree fell down blocking Route 173 in Poplar Grove.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindGarden Prairie$10,000Several trees blown down, up to 4 feet in diameter. Powerlines blown down and minor structural damage to some houses.
June 2007Flash FloodPoplar Grove$10,000Whiting Road washed out, just west of Popular Grove.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$6,000no account filed
June 2014Thunderstorm WindCaledonia$5,000Roof shingles were ripped off near Route 173 and Caledonia Road.
September 2012Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$5,000Windows were blown out of a building.
July 2008LightningBelvidere$5,000Lightning struck a home on Ruth Circle but only caused damage to cables and appliances, no fire or structural damage was reported.
May 1986Tornado (F0)not stated$2,500no account filed
August 2016Flash FloodBelvidere$2,000Car stalled in deep water and other flooded roads around town.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$1,000Trees and power lines were blown down.
June 1995Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$1,000Trees and limbs were blown down, knocking out power.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$1,000Windows were blown in at the Belvidere Oasis over the Interstate 90 tollway.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindBelvidere$500An aluminum flag pole was blown down and a six inch diameter tree was blown down.
April 2026Thunderstorm WindPoplar Grove-A tree was downed along Poplar Grove Rd south of Poplar Grove.
April 2026Funnel CloudCapron-McHenry County emergency management reported a funnel cloud near Capron.
April 2026Heavy RainTimberlane-A personal weather station recorded 1.81 inches of rainfall near Timberlane between 6:00 and 7:00 PM CST.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindBelvidere-Extensive tree damage was reported along Distillery Rd outside of Belvidere. One tree trunk was snapped a few feet off the ground and multiple large tree limbs were downed, some of them onto power lines.
June 2025Tornado (EF0)Belvidere-A brief EF0 tornado with peak estimated winds of 85 mph touched down northwest of Belvidere. Photos shared by the Boone County EMA show that a concentrated area of tree damage occurred at and across the street from a property along Distillery Road south of US Rt. 20. Multiple trees were uprooted or snapped, and several large tree limbs and branches were downed as well, including some that fell onto powerlines.
June 2025Heavy RainHunter-A private weather station recorded 3.91 of storm total rain through 6 PM. 1.12 were recorded in a 30-minute period.
August 2025Heavy RainBlaine-A private weather station recorded 5.75 of rain through 7 PM CST, most of which would have fallen since 5:30 PM CST.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindGarden Prairie-A tree was blown down on Mill Street Road and Garden Prairie Road.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindBelvidere-Trees 3 to 4 feet in diameter were snapped along N Appleton Rd between Douglas and Maryland courts in Belvidere.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindBelvidere-Boone County EM reported numerous trees down on the southeast side of Belvidere.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindBelvidere-Two trees two feet in diameter were downed and branches 6 to 12 inches in diameter were broken near Gardner and Jackson streets in Belvidere.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindBelvidere-Seven trees were downed on the corner of 2nd St and Whitney Blvd, the largest being about 4 feet in diameter. Power lines were also reported down.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindPoplar Grove Airport-Several large tree limbs were blown down and one large tree was uprooted in and near the Henninger Heights subdivision northeast of Belvidere.
May 2024Tornado (EF0)Blaine-A weak tornado touched down just west of Beaverton Road, about halfway between Hunter Road and Blaine Road. The tornado moved northeast producing sporadic tree damage in Boone County and crossed into McHenry County just north of Engelhardt Road.
July 2024FloodBelvidere-Street flooding was reported in Belvidere.
June 2024Heavy RainBelvidere-A 24 hour rainfall of 3.8 was recorded in Belvidere.
July 2024Flash FloodTimberlane-A 50 foot wide stream of water about 3 to 4 inches deep was rushing across Squaw Prairie Road between Townhall Road and Beloit Road. Piscasaw Creek overtopped the Squaw Prairie Road Bridge. Photos and videos showed flooded yards, driveways and roads in the adjacent Wilcox subdivision. Several roads and fields were flooded northeast of Belvidere and north of Garden Prairie. Some roads had several inches of standing water on them and were closed.
July 2024FloodBelvidere-Two to three inches of water caused lane blockage on Logan Avenue from East Avenue to Jamestown Avenue.
March 2023Tornado (EF1)Caledonia-This tornado touched down southwest of the village of Caledonia moving through mostly farmland along its northeastward track. The storm destroyed numerous outbuildings, heavily damaged a silo, and caused a grain bin to collapse. In the Candlewick Lake neighborhood southeast of Caledonia, a few homes sustained roof and siding damage. Several trees were also damaged. The tornado then crossed into the village of Sharon in southwestern Walworth County, Wisconsin. The storm would go on for nearly another four miles mostly doing damage to barns and trees before lifting near Town Hall Rd and Chilson Rd.
April 2023Thunderstorm WindPoplar Grove Airport-A private weather station measured a wind gust to 85 mph. Several large trees were uprooted or damaged, fascia was peeled off of houses and a shed was blown off its foundation.
June 2023HailBelvidere-Multiple quarter size hail reports were received from Belvidere.
July 2023Tornado (EF0)Argyle-An EF-0 tornado dropped on the northeast side of Orth and Argyle Roads along the Winnebago and Boone County line. The tornado then tracked east-northeast before lifting in a farm field east of Beloit Road between Dawson Lake and Orth Roads. Damage along the path of the tornado consisted of snapped and uprooted trees, in addition to minor roofing damage.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindPoplar Grove-A photo shared on social media showed half of a small tree snapped.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindCandlewick Lake-Several trees were blown down along the Long Prairie Trail.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindBelvidere-Broken power poles and tree limbs up to 3 inches in diameter were reported broken in Belvidere via mPING.

Mines and quarries

17 recorded

The Survey's mineral resources record lists 17 workings inside this county. 6 still produce and 11 are closed or unrecorded. Each settlement page carries the workings within five miles of it.

Commodity Workings
Sand and Gravel, Construction9
Stone, Crushed/Broken8

The least common of them first, because a county's hundredth gravel pit says nothing its first ten did not.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Belvidere Crushed Stone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Belvidere QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Boone City Hwy DeptStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Irene Quarry & Mill #3Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
J. Vowles QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Lee QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Schlichting Excavating QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Thebes Limestone Mine QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Belvidere DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Belvidere PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Belvidere Sand & Stone Co. QuarrySand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Cordray Brothers PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Mchenry PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Meyer PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Spencer PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Spots PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Tripps PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every populated place in the county

18

Named settlements recorded in the Geographic Names Information System, each with the topographic sheets covering it. Villages, hamlets and abandoned places alike. Each is shown with the nearest named watercourse or landform and the survey quadrangle it falls on.

The vanished settlements of Boone County: the places named above that are no longer on the map.

Provenance

  • Topographic sheets. USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, county index, measured from the bulk metadata.
  • Fire insurance maps. Library of Congress Sanborn collection, faceted to this county.
  • Photographs. Each place queried individually against the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs search.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.