Carlinville, Illinois
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1923 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Carlinville Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62626. It stands on Briar Creek. The Survey maps it on the Carlinville West quadrangle. 5,710 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 620 feet above sea level.
On record in Carlinville
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 3 records
John C. Anderson Houselisted 1992
Carlinville Chapter Houselisted 1980
Carlinville Historic Districtlisted 1976
Population over time
3 figuresCarlinville grew from 5,685 to 5,710 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 5,685 | |
| 2010 | 5,917 | +232 (+4%) |
| 2020 | 5,710 | -207 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1923 USGS Carlinville quadrangle1:48000
- 1925 USGS Carlinville quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1931 USGS Carlinville quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Carlinville West quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Litchfield quadrangle1:100000
- 1998 USGS Carlinville West quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
9,926 words on this townshipHistory of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911 names this settlement in its chapter on Carlinville Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Carlinville is now (1911), a beautiful little city 6f 3,616 population, with most of its business houses on four streets which face the square. The place is devoid of manufactories, although at one time it had nourishing machine shops, a brewery, established in 1859 by Steel & Lebherz, which continued in operation many years. This and the machine shops have long been abandoned. There were mills in Carlinville, the output of which was many hundred barrels of flour per day. These have gone out of existence, most of them having been destroyed by fire, until today not one remains.
Passage source: History of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911.
Carlinville is a splendid trading town and has one of the. most fertile and prosperous regions in central Illinois from which to secure customers. With good roads and railroad facilities unsurpassed in the Chicago & Alton and the Illinois Traction System, the people easily reach her marts, not only from all points of the county but from adjoining territory. Her merchants are consequently busy and prosperous, as is evidenced by the modern store buildings and many handsome homes, cRurches and other structures.
Passage source: History of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911.
In April, 1865, Carlinville received its charter as an incorporated city and since that time to the present the following men of worth and standing have acted as its chief executive officer: John M. Woodson, 1865; William B. Dugger, 1866-67; Alexander P. Bettersworth, 1868; William Farrell, 1869; Henry TT. Weer, 1870-71 ; Charles A. Walker, 1872 ; Henry H. Weer, 1873 ; James K. Fur-
Passage source: History of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911.
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 Carlinville Township - it names this place 41 more 41 times.
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Carlinville: 2 occurrences, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Macoupin County Pit | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Limestone Prospect | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence | ||
| Limestone Prospect | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
50 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Carlinville in 50 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 27 hail, 21 thunderstorm wind, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2002 | Hail | Carlinville | $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Carlinville | $250,000 | no account filed |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage of an unknown extent throughout Carlinville. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down a tree onto Illinois Route 4 on southeast side of town. |
| May 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large trees. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down a small shed. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Numerous tree limbs were blown down around town. Also, a 55 foot tree was blown over crashing through a fence and into a back yard. The tree was alive but hollow. Several power lines were blown down as well. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees and power lines, and numerous tree limbs in Carlinville. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Numerous tree limbs were blown down. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous tree limbs and power lines. |
| May 2005 | Hail | Carlinville | - | Amateur radio spotters reported nickel size hail northwest of Carlinville. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Carlinville | - | Storm spotters reported 3/4 inch hail. |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | The County Sheriff reported that a home was damaged by a downed tree. |
| April 2001 | Hail | Carlinville | - | The County Emergency Manager reported 3/4 inch hail. |
| September 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts downed some trees and power lines in Carlinville. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Carlinville | - | Storm spotters reported 3/4 inch hail. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | The County Sheriff reported power lines down on the north side of town. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | The local power company reported electric lines down just west of town. |
| July 2000 | Hail | Carlinville | - | Storm spotters reported 1 inch hail in Carlinville. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Carlinville | - | Storm spotters reported 1 inch hail. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Carlinville | - | A storm spotter reported 3/4 inch hail. |
| March 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts destroyed a storage building and blew part of the roof off a barm. |
| May 1995 | Hail | Carlinville | - | Ham radio spotters reported threee-quarters inch diameter hail in the Brighton area. Several minutes later, the Illinois State Police and the county sheriff reported golf ball-size hail in and around Carlinville, lasting for about ten minutes. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2013 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F1) | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| November 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Carlinville | - | 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 Carlinville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q575129 | 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 405594. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, 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.







