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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.

Benson within Woodford County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Benson 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.

YearPeople Change
2010423
2020412-11 (-3%)

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.

Fires near this place

3 since 2011

Regional 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 burning1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
29 September 2012Equipment and vehicle use40 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBALLY
20 May 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesFARM
6 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources41124

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Woodford County

Storms near this place

16 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1997Thunderstorm WindBenson$80,000Thunderstorm 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 2014Thunderstorm WindBenson$20,000A machine shed was damaged.
March 2009Thunderstorm WindBenson$10,000Power lines were blown down south of the intersection of routes 116 and 117 near Benson.
May 2014Thunderstorm WindBenson$8,000The roof and doors of a machine shed were blown off.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindBenson$7,000A tree was blown onto a garage 1 mile south of Benson.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindBenson$4,000A tree was blown onto a power line in Benson.
September 2012Tornado (EF0)Benson$1,000A 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 2019Tornado (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 2012Tornado (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 2012Tornado (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 2004Thunderstorm WindBenson-Thunderstorm winds blew down several large tree limbs.
March 2023HailBenson-no account filed
March 2023HailBenson-no account filed
June 2009HailBenson-no account filed
May 1999HailBenson-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindBenson-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Woodford 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
Woodford5.0 miles12
Roanoke5.5 miles11
Minonk6.0 miles12
Panola7.1 miles12
Secor7.5 miles14
Spires8.8 miles13
El Paso9.5 miles15
Washburn10.1 miles18

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 BensonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2115789The 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.