BlockCowden, Illinois
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1941 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Dry Point Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62422. The Survey maps it on the Beecher City quadrangle. 515 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 597 feet above sea level.
On record in Cowden
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Thompson Mill Covered Bridgelisted 1975
Population over time
2 figuresCowden fell from 629 to 515 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 | 629 | |
| 2020 | 515 | -114 (-18%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 12 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.
- 1941 USGS St. Elmo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1945 USGS St. Elmo quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Beecher City quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Effingham quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Storms near this place
14 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cowden in 14 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 7 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. 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 | Lightning | Cowden | $8,000 | Lightning struck a propane line and quickly spred to an 8 foot by 12 foot shed. The shed was quickly engulfed in flames and was a total loss. There were no injuries. |
| July 2025 | Flash Flood | Cowden | - | Many streets in Cowden had water flowing across them. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cowden | - | Lots of tree damage in and around Cowden. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cowden | - | No damage was reported. |
| July 2004 | Flash Flood | Cowden | - | Several roads around Cowden were briefly flooded due to heavy rains that fell in a short amount of time. |
| April 2001 | Hail | Cowden | - | Hail ranging from dime to golf ball size was reported during this time frame. A report came in of softball size hail at the Hudson Power Plant. Damage ocurred to employee vehicles, but no estimates were available. Location of this hail is 5 east of US 128, just north of Holiday. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| March 2012 | Hail | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| October 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Cowden | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Cowden | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milne | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Fancher | 4.9 miles | 13 | |
| Williamsburg (historical) | 5.1 miles | 13 | |
| Williamsburg Hill | 5.3 miles | 13 | |
| Lakewood | 5.6 miles | 13 | |
| Herrick | 6.8 miles | 13 | |
| Mode | 6.9 miles | 12 | |
| Clarksburg | 7.1 miles | 13 |
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 Cowden | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1943459 | 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 406681. 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.
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.