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Coal City, Illinois

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1892 and the latest in 1993. It stands in Felix Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60416. The Survey maps it on the Coal City quadrangle. 5,705 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 568 feet above sea level.

Coal City within Grundy County

Population over time

2 figures

Coal City grew from 5,587 to 5,705 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
20105,587
20205,705+118 (+2%)

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

1,323 words on this township

History of Grundy County, Illinois : Containing a History from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time ... , Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Some of the Early Settlers, Prominent Men, Etc, published 1882 names this settlement in its chapter on Felix Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

June, 1841. They have a family of four sons and two daughters - David Mackie, born in Scotland June 20, 1862 ; Thomas Mackie, born in Scotland November 9, 1869 ; Janet Mackie, born in Scotland September 6, 1865 ; George B. Mackie, born in Scotland December 3, 1868 ; Jane P. Mackie, born in Felix Township, Grundy County, July 25, 1872 ; John W. Mackie, born in Grundy Count}- December 9, 1877. Mr. Mackie is superintending a force of about 400 men, the monthly pay-roll amounting to $17,931 for the month ending October 31, 1882. Their average capacity is about 500 tons per day. The company own a tract of 1,040 acres of coal land in Felix and Braceville Townships.

Passage source: History of Grundy County, Illinois : Containing a History from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time ... , Biographical Sketches, Portraits of Some of the Early Settlers, Prominent Men, Etc, published 1882.

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 Felix Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Fires near this place

15 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Coal City between 2003 and 2018, burning about 884 acres in total. 1 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/undetermined11
Arson/incendiarism2
Debris and open burning1
Natural1

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
31 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE13
13 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE12
5 May 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE10
5 May 2009Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE9
29 May 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE11
29 April 2003Natural600 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesGOOSE LAKE
26 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRAACE8
11 April 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-000183

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Grundy County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Coal City: 2 producers. All of them still produce. 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bohac Sand PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Fatlan Sand PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Grundy County

Storms near this place

36 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Coal City in 36 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 20 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 5 heavy rain. 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
July 2008Thunderstorm WindCoal City$50,000Large tree limbs and power lines were blown down. Some structural damage was reported from debris. Crop damage was also reported.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindCoal City$10,000Winds measured to 64 mph caused a tree to fall onto a house, and another to fall onto the roadway, blocking portions of Kankakee Street. A transformer was also blown down. A large tree limb fell on Division Street and just missed hitting a vehicle.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindCoal City$2,000Several trees and power lines were blown down, including some fairly large trees.
July 2025Heavy RainCoal City-Storm total rainfall of 3.35 inches was measured by a private weather station with most of the rain falling in 45 minutes.
July 2025Heavy RainCoal City-Storm total rainfall of 3.57 inches was measured by a private weather station.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindCoal City-Several trees and tree limbs were blown down in Coal City.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindCoal City-Large trees were uprooted south of the Route 113 and Gorman Road intersection.
August 2009Heavy RainCoal City-Rainfall of 2.16 inches was reported in the past 24 hours.
June 2007Heavy RainCoal City-An NWS employee measured 2.12 inches of rain in just 30 minutes.
May 2007HailCoal City-Penny to nickel size hail reported. Hail covered the ground and stripped leaves off trees near Garfield and Route 113.
August 2007Heavy RainCoal City-Measured 24 hour rainfall was 5.01 inches.
March 2006HailCoal City-Quarter size hail was reported near Route 113 and Gorman Roads.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindCoal City-A 14 inch diameter tree was blown down near Mcardle and Higgins, partially blocking Higgins Road.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindCoal City-A gust to 69 mph was measured four miles northwest of Coal City.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindCoal City-Six inch diameter tree limbs were blown down near Coal City. A roof was blown off a barn and trees were blown over near Gardner.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindCoal City-Tree limbs and power lines were down.
May 2004Thunderstorm WindCoal City-Trees were blown down.
June 2004Thunderstorm WindCoal City-Large tree limbs broken off by strong winds.
March 2017Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
April 2015Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
July 2012HailCoal City-no account filed
July 2010Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
June 2009Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
June 2008HailCoal City-no account filed
May 2008HailCoal City-no account filed
October 2007HailCoal City-no account filed
March 2005HailCoal City-no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
September 2003HailCoal City-no account filed
May 2003Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
July 2001Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindCoal City-no account filed
May 1997HailCoal City-no account filed
April 1996HailCoal City-no account filed
August 1993HailCoal City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Grundy 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
Eileen0.9 miles20
Carbon Hill1.0 miles20
Harrisonville1.0 miles20
Diamond1.8 miles20
Centerville (historical)2.2 miles20
Central City3.5 miles10
Gorman3.5 miles20
Braceville4.3 miles10

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 Coal CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2442973The 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 406280. 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.