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.
Population over time
2 figuresAltona 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 531 | |
| 2020 | 463 | -68 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 12 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1931 USGS Galva quadrangle1:48000
- 1940 USGS Galva quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1944 USGS Galva quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Oneida quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Aledo quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Aledo quadrangle1:100000
In the county-history sources
16,179 words on this townshipHistory 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 2003Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $75,000 | Numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines were blown down in and around Altona, Galesburg, and Abingdon. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $25,000 | Several large tree limbs were blown down. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $15,000 | A metal outbuilding was damaged. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $10,000 | Numerous 3-inch diameter tree branches were blown down. |
| September 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $8,000 | Several 1.5 to 5-inch diameter tree branches were blown down. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $6,000 | A power pole was blown down about 1 mile east of Altona. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | $2,000 | A tree was blown down about 2 miles south of Altona. |
| April 2025 | Tornado (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 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | - | Multiple trees were blown down in the neighbors yard. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | - | Strong thunderstorm winds damaged crops just east of Altona. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | - | A tree and power pole were blown down in Altona. |
| May 2013 | Flood | Altona | - | 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 2013 | Flash Flood | Altona | - | 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 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | - | An 8-inch diameter branch was blown down. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Altona | - | Hail quickly increased in size from 0.75 inch to 1.75 inches to 2.75 inches in Altona. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | - | 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 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Altona | - | 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 2024 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
| August 2022 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
| April 2019 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
| February 2017 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
| February 2017 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Altona | - | no account filed |
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.
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 Altona | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2671188 | The 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.








