BlockBefore

Altona, Illinois

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Walnut Grove Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61414. It stands on Pilot Creek. The Survey maps it on the Oneida quadrangle. 463 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 761 feet above sea level.

Altona within Knox County

Population over time

2 figures

Altona fell from 531 to 463 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010531
2020463-68 (-13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 12 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

16,179 words on this township

History of Knox County, Illinois, published 1878 names this settlement in its chapter on Walnut Grove Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

John Thompson was the first permanent settler. He was originally rom Pennsylvania, but removed from Ohio to Illinois in July, 1836, and settled in Knox county, on section 16, the present site of the village of Altona. Previous to this Jones and DePIart settled on section 21, but were scared away by the Black Hawk war in 1832. Mr. Thompson's nearest neighbor lived at Fraker's Grove, eleven miles distant.

Passage source: History of Knox County, Illinois, published 1878.

During the years 1836-7 a band of Indians, about 30 in number, camped for a short time just west of Mr. John Thompson's residence, and near the present high-school building of Altona. An old Indian and his squaw remained long after the body of Indians left, and most excellent neighbors they were.

Passage source: History of Knox County, Illinois, published 1878.

At one time Walnut Grove township was the home of a large number of Mormons. It was revealed to Joe Smith, the prophet, that a branch church should be established, and all the inhabitants of this beautiful land should yield up a portion of their increase to the build-

Passage source: History of Knox County, Illinois, published 1878.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Walnut Grove Township - it names this place 14 more 14 times.

Storms near this place

24 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Altona in 24 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 13 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 1 flood, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2010Thunderstorm WindAltona$75,000Numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines were blown down in and around Altona, Galesburg, and Abingdon.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindAltona$25,000Several large tree limbs were blown down.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindAltona$15,000A metal outbuilding was damaged.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindAltona$10,000Numerous 3-inch diameter tree branches were blown down.
September 2014Thunderstorm WindAltona$8,000Several 1.5 to 5-inch diameter tree branches were blown down.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindAltona$6,000A power pole was blown down about 1 mile east of Altona.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindAltona$2,000A tree was blown down about 2 miles south of Altona.
April 2025Tornado (EF1)Altona-A tornado touched down along Knox Road 1525 East about 1.5 miles northeast of Altona at 8:41 PM CDT. It destroyed a hog farm building and tossed it into a nearby outbuilding upon touchdown, then tracked northward into the National Weather Service Quad Cities County Warning Area in Henry County just east of the intersection of North Knox Road and East 1470th Street at 8:43 PM CDT.
July 2023Thunderstorm WindAltona-Multiple trees were blown down in the neighbors yard.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindAltona-Strong thunderstorm winds damaged crops just east of Altona.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindAltona-A tree and power pole were blown down in Altona.
May 2013FloodAltona-Several rounds of thunderstorms with torrential rainfall produced 4.00 to 6.00 inches of rain in northeast Knox County late in the evening of May 26th. This resulted in numerous reports of flooded rural roads in and near Altona and Victoria. Additional rainfall overnight kept roads closed into the early morning. Flood waters subsided by late in the morning on the 27th.
May 2013Flash FloodAltona-Several rounds of thunderstorms with torrential rainfall produced 4.00 to 6.00 inches of rain in northeast Knox County late in the evening of May 26th. This resulted in numerous reports of flooded rural roads in and near Altona and Victoria.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindAltona-An 8-inch diameter branch was blown down.
April 2006HailAltona-Hail quickly increased in size from 0.75 inch to 1.75 inches to 2.75 inches in Altona.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindAltona-Thunderstorm winds destroyed 2 barns, damaged numerous farm buildings, and blew down numerous trees, tree limbs, power lines and power poles. No injuries were reported.
April 2003Thunderstorm WindAltona-Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous trees, tree limbs, power poles and power lines. Also, a 150 foot long grain leg on a grain bin was destroyed near Altona, as well as part of the roof of a nearby barn.
June 2024HailAltona-no account filed
August 2022HailAltona-no account filed
April 2019HailAltona-no account filed
February 2017HailAltona-no account filed
February 2017HailAltona-no account filed
June 2012HailAltona-no account filed
April 2006HailAltona-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Knox County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Oneida4.4 miles12
Victoria6.6 miles12
Centerville6.8 miles12
Ontario8.0 miles9
Wataga8.7 miles9
Oak Run10.5 miles17
Henderson11.9 miles9
Appleton12.3 miles17

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on AltonaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2671188The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 403472. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry 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.