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Clear Lake, Illinois

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1907 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Clear Lake Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62707. It stands on Hoover Branch. The Survey maps it on the Springfield East quadrangle. 203 people lived here at the 2020 count.

Clear Lake within Sangamon County

Population over time

2 figures

Clear Lake fell from 229 to 203 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
2010229
2020203-26 (-11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 20 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.

In the county-history sources

2,685 words on this township

History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881 names this settlement in its chapter on Clear Lake Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Clear Lake township is well supplied with streams of living water. The north fork of the Sangamon river enters on section thirty-six, and the south fork enters on section thirty-three, the two uniting on section twenty-seven, and flowing northward, emerges from the township from section five, but returns within a quarter of a mile, flows westward, and enters Springfield township from section six. Sugar creek enters the township on section thirty-one, and flowing in a northeasterly direction, unites with the Sangamon river on section twenty-eight. Clear Lake is a beautiful sheet of water, about one half mile in length and an average width of two hundred yards. On the banks of this lake, many pic-nic parties are held each summer, and boats are provided for sailing and rowing upon the lake.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

Clear Lake township is traversed by two railroads, the Wabash and the Springfield & Northwestern. The former enters from Springfield on section nineteen, runs in a northeasterly direction through the village of Riverton to section ten, when it runs due east into the township of Mechanicsburg. The latter from Springfield enters on section eighteen, and runs northeast, enters Williams township from section two.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

The township was first settled in 1820, Hugh McGary was the first settler. He settled immediately upon the banks of Clear Lake. He was an old soldier under Harrison, and was a man highly respected, being a high-minded honorable man.

Passage source: History of Sangamon County, Illinois; Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships ... Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens. History of Illinois, published 1881.

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 Clear Lake Township - it names this place 8 more 8 times.

Fires near this place

6 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Clear Lake between 2001 and 2014, burning about 67 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Debris and open burning2
Recreation and ceremony1

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
13 May 2001Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
15 March 2014Debris and open burning3.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources14-0000084
4 November 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10349
16 October 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10336
14 October 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10334
14 October 2010Debris and open burning50 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10333

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sangamon County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Clear Lake: 6 past producers, 3 producers, 1 prospect. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Fire Clay (Refractory), Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Poston Brick & Concrete Prod. ClayClayProspect
Springfield Clay Prod.Co.PitclayFire Clay (Refractory)Past Producer
Sangamon County Highway DepartmentStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Springfield City Eng.Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Clear Lake DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Riverton Barrow PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Sangamon Valley DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Springfield Pit Solomon ServiceSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Springfield Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Springfield Sand&Gravel Co. DredgeSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Sangamon County

Storms near this place

2 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clear Lake in 2 storm reports between 2013 and 2025: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. 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 2013Thunderstorm WindClear Lake$8,000A power pole was snapped and several tree branches were blown down in Clear Lake.
May 2025HailClear Lake-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sangamon 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
Arlington Heights1.8 miles20
Starne2.1 miles20
Keys2.3 miles20
Bissell2.3 miles20
Riverton2.6 miles20
Grandview2.7 miles20
East Springfield3.3 miles19
Shale Bluff3.3 miles20

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 Clear LakeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2652979The 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 406223. 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.

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.