Cisco, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1937 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Willow Branch Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61830. The Survey maps it on the Weldon East quadrangle. 254 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 687 feet above sea level.

Cisco within Piatt County

Population over time

3 figures

Cisco fell from 1,000 to 254 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	1,000
2010	261	-739 (-74%)
2020	254	-7 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 14 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.

1937 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:62500
1937 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:48000
1943 USGS Monticello quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
1979 USGS Weldon East quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Champaign quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000

In the county-history sources

1,309 words on this township

History 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 Willow Branch Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Wolf run and Wild Cat creek are the principal tributaries to the Sangamen from the north. It is supposed that Wolf run obtained its name from the fact that wolf dens were frequently found in its banks, and because several wild cats were found near the other stream it thus received its name. Willow branch is the main tributary from the south and it is supposed that it received its name 'from the fact that a large willow tree used to stand near the place where the stream was most frequently forded. It is supposed that the township took its name from this stream.

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.

A lane running across the northern part of the township has long been known as Stringtown lane. Most of the early settlements in that part of the township were built on or near this lane. A portion of the northwestern part of the township has been styled Kentucky, we suppose because some of the settlers in that vicinity were from the state of that name.

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.

Cisco. - This is a small town, but is improving all the time. The depot was built in 1874, and E. F. Dallas was the first grain merchant and ticket agent. E. F. Dallas was the first grocer of the place, but Oscar Harper soon bought him out, and was the first postmaster of the town. Mr. Dallas and Dr. Caldwell were about the first business men of the place. Washington ^ebaker kept the first drygoods store in 1874, while Walker and Carter had the first hardware store. James Glick was the first blacksmith, J. B. Hamilton the first druggist, and

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 Willow Branch Township - it names this place 4 more 4 times.

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Cisco: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
	Argenta Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Piatt County

Storms near this place

31 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cisco in 31 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 14 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 7 tornado, 2 flash flood. The reports record 1 death and 3 injuries. 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 1999	Tornado (F1)	Cisco	1 killed, 3 hurt, $150,000	A tornado formed and touched down destroying a double wide trailer 3 miles north of Cisco. Four people were initially injured, though one died the next day. A barn and two garages nearby were destroyed. Further to the northeast, the tornado destroyed a barn. Five miles north northeast of Cisco, the top story of a two story barn was removed. After this, the tornado lifted and dissipated. Damage to the mobile home was estimated around $150,000.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	$60,000	Two machine sheds were destroyed by strong winds.
October 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	$22,000	Trees were damaged, a trampoline was blown into a tree in a tree, and a semi truck flipped over.
June 2009	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	$15,000	Several trees were blown down.
May 2013	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	$12,000	Trees were blown down on Route 32 near Cisco.
May 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	$10,000	The roof was blown off a concrete barn.
June 2021	Tornado (EF0)	Cisco	-	A tornado touched down in an open field about 2.4 miles north-northwest of Cisco at 6:08 PM CDT. The tornado quickly dissipated by 6:10 PM CDT. Minor crop damage was reported.
May 2019	Tornado (EF1)	Cisco	-	A tornado touched down 0.6 miles west of Cisco at 1:10 AM CDT. The tornado tracked eastward through the north side of Cisco. Numerous trees were damaged, several of which fell onto buildings. The tornado dissipated 0.8 miles northeast of Cisco at 1:12 AM CDT.
May 2018	Hail	Cisco	-	A storm produced hail that destroyed 80 acres of young soybeans about 3 miles north of Cisco.
May 2017	Flash Flood	Cisco	-	Heavy rain of 3.00 to 6.00 inches from the late evening of May 18th through the early morning of May 19th produced flash flooding in central Piatt County. Numerous rural roads were closed from Cerro Gordo through Milmine toward Bement. A vehicle was stranded in the flood waters just north of Route 105, about 3 miles east of Cerro Gordo. No injuries were reported. The flooding subsided in most areas around 9:00 am.
May 2009	Flash Flood	Cisco	-	Heavy rain of 2.50 to 4.00 inches within three hours produced significant flash flooding of most roads in Piatt County.
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	Power lines blown down at Highway 48 and 1700 North.
July 2006	Tornado (F0)	Cisco	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field causing crop damage.
July 2006	Tornado (F0)	Cisco	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field and caused crop damage.
July 2006	Tornado (F0)	Cisco	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field and caused crop damage.
July 2006	Tornado (F0)	Cisco	-	A tornado briefly touched down in a field and caused crop damage.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	Several tree limbs and power lines blown down.
May 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	Several trees, power lines and power poles were blown down.
August 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	A tree was blown down onto a house causing minor damage.
August 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	Tree limb was blown over onto a power line. No power outage resulted and the power line never broke.
November 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	Several trees and power lines were blown down in Cisco and Atwood.
July 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	Thunderstorm winds blew down several trees and tree limbs in Cisco.
May 2025	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed
June 2023	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed
May 2016	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed
May 2009	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed
April 2006	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	no account filed
April 2006	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Cisco	-	no account filed
May 2003	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Cisco	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Piatt 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Amenia	3.2 miles	14
Monticello	8.2 miles	14
Milmine	8.2 miles	11
Cerro Gordo	8.3 miles	11
De Land	8.8 miles	14
Combs	9.7 miles	14
Bement	10.2 miles	12
Lodge	11.0 miles	14

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 Cisco	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2190529	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 406127. 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.