Cambria, Illinois
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Blairsville precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62915. The Survey maps it on the Herrin quadrangle. 1,505 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 427 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCambria grew from 1,228 to 1,505 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 | 1,228 | |
| 2020 | 1,505 | +277 (+23%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 18 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.
- 1910 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1936 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
63 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Cambria between 1992 and 2020, burning about 148 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 35 |
| Smoking | 14 |
| Debris and open burning | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 14 acres | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | GOBPOINT |
| 5 September 1999 | Smoking | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | GREENBRIAR |
| 28 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10217 |
| 25 September 1999 | Smoking | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | PROPELLER2 |
| 8 August 1997 | Smoking | under an acre | Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge | COSPILLWAY |
| 3 August 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10163 |
| 7 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10137 |
| 4 July 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10136 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
11 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cambria in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2008 | Flood | Cambria | $375,000 | In Marion, firefighters used boats to rescue 13 residents of the city's housing project. Water was up to a foot deep in some apartments. Five stranded motorists were rescued by Marion firefighters. A total of 21 persons were rescued by boat by firefighters in the city of Marion. At least a few vehicles were submerged up to their headlights. Victims were transported to a Red Cross shelter. A Marion official stated this was the worst flood since May of 1996, before the flood control project was completed. Many streets were underwater, including the main access road to Marion High School. An SUV was stranded in floodwaters. In Johnston City, most roadways were closed. A bridge was taken out by floodwaters on a side street. Route 148 was closed north of the Crab Orchard bridge. Numerous county roads were closed. Ten basements were flooded in Herrin. |
| January 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cambria | $100,000 | Thunderstorm winds estimated near 90 MPH severely damaged a wood frame home and partially unroofed several other homes. This thunderstorm downburst originated just northeast of Carbondale in Jackson County, and caused extensive damage in the Cambria area before dissipating. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cambria | $75,000 | Approximately 40 trees were downed in and around Cambria as a surging storm line moved northeastward. One tree fell onto a manufactured home. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cambria | $75,000 | no account filed |
| May 2025 | Hail | Cambria | - | An extended period of hail occurred at Cambria with initial hailstones measured to one inch increasing in size to golf ball as the supercell storm continued eastward. |
| July 2025 | Flash Flood | Cambria | - | Flash flooding was reported on Timber Trail and West Grand Avenue. Radar estimated hourly rainfall amounts for this area peaked at around 1.25. The lack of much subsequent rainfall limited the flood duration. |
| June 2015 | Flash Flood | Cambria | - | Street flooding occurred in Marion. A city intersection was impassable. Near Cambria, water was over Cambria Road in numerous locations. In Pittsburg, streets were underwater with widespread flooding. |
| May 2009 | Hail | Cambria | - | Golf-ball size hail fell across much of western Williamson County from Carterville to Herrin and Cambria. |
| April 2007 | Hail | Cambria | - | Large hail was reported in numerous places in northern and western parts of the county. The largest stones were half-dollar size in Herrin. |
| February 1999 | Hail | Cambria | - | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Cambria | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fredonia | 0.7 miles | 18 | |
| Fredonia (historical) | 0.9 miles | 18 | |
| Blairsville | 2.1 miles | 18 | |
| Dewmaine | 2.2 miles | 18 | |
| Colp | 2.7 miles | 18 | |
| Crab Orchard Estates | 2.7 miles | 22 | |
| Carterville | 2.7 miles | 18 | |
| Crainville | 3.4 miles | 18 |
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 Cambria | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2443727 | 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 405419. 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.










