Cerro Gordo, Illinois
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1999. It stands in Cerro Gordo Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61818. The Survey maps it on the Cerro Gordo quadrangle. 1,316 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 738 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCerro Gordo fell from 1,403 to 1,316 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 | 1,403 | |
| 2020 | 1,316 | -87 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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 Bement quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Cerro Gordo quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1999 USGS Cerro Gordo quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
8,856 words on this townshipHistory of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883 names this settlement in its chapter on Cerro Gordo Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
In regard to the name of the township, we have had two versions given as to its origin. One is that Col. Williams, who bought a large tract of land in the eastern part of the township and lived there a number of years, was noted for his deeds in the Mexican war, and that he was thus given the sobriquet of Cerro Gordo Williams. As he was the largest land-holder in that vicinity, it was not strange that it
Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.
At the time of the Mexican war a postoffiee in Mr. Geo. Peck's house, which was on the old stage route from Urbana to Decatur, was named Cerro Gordo, in memory of the battle of that name. After the railroad, now known as the Wabash, was built, the postoffiee was moved to the same, and ultimately the town was called Cerro Gordo. When the townships were organized it is quite likely that the name of the principal town was given to the township. We think that this latter version in regard to the name is the most plausible.
Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.
Cerro Gordo township has two railroads and four stations. The Wabash railroad enters the township at the northeastern corner, extends southwest, leaving the township about two miles south of the northwest corner. Milmine and Cerro Gordo are situated on this road, while Lintner and La Place are on the road formerly known as the Indianapolis, Decatur & Springfield, and which passes from east to west about one-half a mile from the southern boundary line.
Passage source: History of Piatt County; Together with a Brief History of Illinois from the Discovery of the Upper Mississippi to the Present Time, published 1883.
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 Cerro Gordo Township - it names this place 10 more 10 times.
Fires near this place
1 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Cerro Gordo in 2009, burning under an acre 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 January 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | DEMMINK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cerro Gordo in 19 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | $80,000 | Strong winds damaged several grain bins and sheds and the roof of a house. |
| December 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | $45,000 | Several trees were blown down and a pole barn was damaged along Route 105. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | $15,000 | Trees were blown down near the Macon/Piatt County line just west of Cerro Gordo. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | A large tree, a telephone pole, and numerous tree branches and power lines were blown down across Cerro Gordo. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | A power pole was snapped and a tree was blown across a road. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | Several tree branches were blown down, one of which damaged a chain link fence. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | Numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down. A flag pole was bent. |
| June 2014 | Flash Flood | Cerro Gordo | - | Heavy rain accumulation of 2.00 to 3.00 in one hour resulted in flash flooding of rural areas in southwest Piatt County. Streets in Cerro Gordo were flooded, as were parts of Illinois Route 32 and 105. Numerous rural roads were impassable in rural Piatt County. The flooding subsided rapidly before daybreak. |
| June 2011 | Flash Flood | Cerro Gordo | - | Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall produced 2.00 to 3.00 of rain in southern Piatt County during the pre-dawn hours of June 27th. Several rural roads were flooded and impassable as a result of the rainfall accumulations. |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Cerro Gordo | - | A thunderstorm produced a heavy downpour with more than 1.50 of rain in 30 minutes across southern Piatt County. Numerous rural roads were flooded as a result. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | A line of thunderstorms moved through Piatt County. The winds blew down numerous trees, tree limbs and power poles. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several tree limbs and power lines. Also, a shed was damaged and a power pole was blown over. |
| February 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | Power lines blown down. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down numerous trees, tree limbs, and power lines in Cerro Gordo and Atwood. |
| November 2025 | Hail | Cerro Gordo | - | no account filed |
| March 2003 | Hail | Cerro Gordo | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Cerro Gordo | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Hail | Cerro Gordo | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cerro Gordo | - | 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 Cerro Gordo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2673420 | 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 405918. 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.





