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Como, Illinois

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Hopkins Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61081. It stands on Elkhorn Creek. The Survey maps it on the Como quadrangle. 528 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 630 feet above sea level.

Como within Whiteside County

Population over time

2 figures

Como fell from 567 to 528 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
2010567
2020528-39 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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

6,659 words on this township

Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Hopkins Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Jason Hopkins, for whom the township is named and Isaac H. Brittle, have the honor of being the pioneers of the township, effecting a settlement in 1835, where the village of Como was subsequently located. Mr. Hopkins passed through this section in 1832, during the Black Hawk War, and was charmed with the country. At that time he made a "jack-knife claim," by cutting his name in the bark of the trees. He said the location was as " beautiful as the Garden of Eden." When he returned with his family in 1835, he surveyed the claim and marked its boundaries in the customary manner of running furrows through the prairies and marking the trees in the timber.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885.

Jason Hopkins was a native of Tennessee, born Dec. 26, 1786. On coming to this State he first located at Belleville, from which place he went to Peoria, and was there on the breaking out of the Black Hawk War. Enlisting in a cavalry regiment, he was appointed Quartermaster, and as such served during the war. He was a cabinet-maker and worked at his trade until he came to this county. An intimate friend of Gen. Jackson, he was a great admirer of the old hero. Mr. Hopkins was a true pioneer, a man esteemed by all who knew him. He died at his home in Coino, Aug. 19, 1853.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885.

Jesse Scott came from Ohio, though born in Luzerne Co., Pa. He made the trip by way of the Ohio, Mississippi and Rock Rivers, in a keel-boat propelled by horse-power, lantfing at Como, June i, 1839. With this boat he made trading trips for several'years after coming to Como.

Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Whiteside County, Illinois : Containing Full-page Portraits and Biographies of All the Governors of Illinois, and of the Presidents of the United States, published 1885.

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 Hopkins Township - it names this place 17 more 17 times.

Fires near this place

4 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Como between 2018 and 2019, burning about 3 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 burning1

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
2 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-369
18 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-414
9 April 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources19-322
23 March 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources19-274

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Whiteside County

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Como: 6 past producers, 2 plants, 1 producer. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Emerson Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
L. Deets QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Como PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Mccue PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Nelson Sand & Gravel Pit #2 &Sand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Propheter PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Propheter Pit & MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Rock Falls Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionPlant
Whiteside Blacktop Company PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Whiteside County

Storms near this place

7 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Como in 7 storm reports between 2003 and 2019: 4 flood, 1 heavy rain, 1 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2003Heavy RainComo$2,000in 25 minutes; roadside ditches full
June 2019FloodComo-The Rock River at Joslin, began the month of June above major flood stage of 16.5 feet. It crested during the late morning on the 1st, at 17.3 feet. It feel below major flood stage in the late afternoon hours June 2nd.
February 2018FloodComo-Whiteside County emergency management reported a significant ice jam that brought widespread inundation of farms and fields near the Rock River between Como and Erie Illinois. This ice jam was associated with major flooding along the Rock River, but enhanced that flooding considerably in that area.
March 2014FloodComo-Warming temperatures into the 50s caused large ice jams to form on the Rock River at Como, Illinois during the middle of March, 2014. This caused major flooding as observed by the emergency manager. The river rose above flood stage of 10 feet at 823 pm CST on March 13, cresting at 13.19 feet on March 16 at 1130 am CST. Major flooding is observed at 12 feet or higher. The river then fell below flood stage at 845 pm CST on March 18.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindComo-Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph were observed 3 miles west of Rock Falls, IL around 650 am CDT July 11.
August 2007FloodComo-The Rock River level at Como was in flood during this period. It crested at 12.05 feet around mid-day on the 26th.
May 2011HailComo-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Whiteside 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
Galt1.6 miles11
Agnew2.2 miles11
Grimes Addition2.4 miles12
Douglas Park2.6 miles12
Emerson2.7 miles11
Sterling4.1 miles12
Rock Falls4.2 miles12
Sands5.1 miles11

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 ComoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1120711The 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 406427. 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.