BlockBefore

Essex, Illinois

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1923 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Essex Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60935. The Survey maps it on the Essex quadrangle. 841 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 589 feet above sea level.

Essex within Kankakee County

Population over time

2 figures

Essex grew from 802 to 841 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
2010802
2020841+39 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 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.

Fires near this place

6 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Essex in 2009, burning about 124 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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
Arson/incendiarism5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
5 May 2009Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE9
23 April 2009Arson/incendiarism7.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMAZONIA4
16 April 2009Arson/incendiarism7.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMAZONIA3
11 April 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMAZONIA2
17 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined100 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesPERINO
15 March 2009Arson/incendiarism4.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMAZONIA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kankakee 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 Essex: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, 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
Bice PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
N.Ill.Coal Co.Clay Shale Pit 2ClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Kankakee County

Storms near this place

8 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Essex in 8 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 5 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 2025Thunderstorm WindEssex-Fascia was peeled off of a house.
June 2008Tornado (EF1)Essex-A tornado touched down just west of 17000W, just south of County Line Road, in far northwest Kankakee County. The tornado uprooted large trees and snapped a small hardwood tree before crossing into southwest Will County.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindEssex-Large tree limbs were blown down.
September 2021HailEssex-no account filed
July 2013HailEssex-no account filed
May 2004HailEssex-no account filed
April 2003HailEssex-no account filed
July 2003HailEssex-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kankakee 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
Clarke City3.3 miles13
Frielings4.0 miles11
Union Hill5.2 miles11
Bonfield7.1 miles11
Goodrich8.2 miles12
Buckingham9.0 miles11
Herscher10.0 miles12
Lehigh10.0 miles12

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 EssexAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2562545The 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 408061. 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.