Benson, Illinois
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1995. It stands in Clayton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61516. The Survey maps it on the Benson quadrangle. 412 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 764 feet above sea level.
On record in Benson
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Benson Water Towerlisted 1987
Population over time
2 figuresBenson fell from 423 to 412 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 | 423 | |
| 2020 | 412 | -11 (-3%) |
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.
- 1955 USGS Minonk quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Benson quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1995 USGS Benson quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
3 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Benson between 2011 and 2016, burning about 41 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | BALLY |
| 20 May 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | FARM |
| 6 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 41124 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Benson in 16 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 8 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 4 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | $80,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down a few trees and tree limbs in Benson. Also, the "doglegs" of a grain bin were blown off, several large sheds had their doors blown in, and some siding damage was reported in the area. No injuries were reported and damage was estimated around $80,000. |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | $20,000 | A machine shed was damaged. |
| March 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | $10,000 | Power lines were blown down south of the intersection of routes 116 and 117 near Benson. |
| May 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | $8,000 | The roof and doors of a machine shed were blown off. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | $7,000 | A tree was blown onto a garage 1 mile south of Benson. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | $4,000 | A tree was blown onto a power line in Benson. |
| September 2012 | Tornado (EF0) | Benson | $1,000 | A tornado touched down in a field about 4 miles north-northwest of Benson in Woodford County at 12:05 PM CDT. The tornado traveled northwestward and crossed into Marshall County 1.2 miles southeast of Pattonsburg at 12:08 PM CDT. While in Woodford County, the tornado tore the tin roof off a shed and did minor damage to a corn field. |
| May 2019 | Tornado (EF0) | Benson | - | A tornado briefly touched down in an open field 3.4 miles northwest of Benson at 4:38 PM CDT. No damage was reported. |
| September 2012 | Tornado (EF0) | Benson | - | A tornado touched down in a field about 3 miles north of Benson in Woodford County at 12:03 PM CDT. The tornado traveled west across County Road 2200E before dissipating at 12:04 PM CDT. No damage was reported. |
| September 2012 | Tornado (EF0) | Benson | - | A tornado briefly touched down in a field about 2 miles east-southeast of Benson in Woodford County at 11:48 AM CDT. No damage was reported. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large tree limbs. |
| March 2023 | Hail | Benson | - | no account filed |
| March 2023 | Hail | Benson | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Benson | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Benson | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benson | - | 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 Benson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2115789 | 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 404183. 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.
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.
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.








