Forest City, Illinois
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Forest City Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61532. The Survey maps it on the Forest City quadrangle. 222 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 493 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresForest City fell from 246 to 222 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 | 246 | |
| 2020 | 222 | -24 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 14 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.
- 1929 USGS Manito quadrangle1:62500
- 1932 USGS Manito quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Forest City quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Lincoln quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
13 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Forest City between 2009 and 2018, burning about 389 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 September 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 092-18 |
| 11 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | SAND RIDGE |
| 27 June 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1201711 |
| 27 June 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1201711 |
| 24 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1191710 |
| 24 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1191710 |
| 20 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1181710 |
| 1 June 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1101701 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Forest City in 16 storm reports between 1994 and 2026: 13 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | $50,000 | A falling tree destroyed a motor home. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | $45,000 | Numerous power lines were knocked down in Forest City. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | $30,000 | Several trees were blown down. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | $2,000 | Tree limbs and power lines were blown down. Several road construction signs were pulled out of the ground.| |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | $50 | Power lines were blown down. |
| March 2026 | Tornado (EF1) | Forest City | - | A tornado touched down northeast of the intersection of County Road 2800 East and County Road 2000 North about 1 mile south-southeast of Forest City at 12:06 AM CDT March 11th. The tornado tracked northeastward, overturning several irrigation pivots and snapping trees along its path before crossing into southwestern Tazewell County south of the intersection of Jacobs Road and Nichols Road at 12:11 AM CDT. |
| May 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Several tree limbs were blown down and a patio railing was broken. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Several trees were blown down along the Manito Blacktop between Manito and Forest City. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Structural damage occurred to a popcorn factory south of Forest City. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Several trees were blown down in Forest City. |
| October 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Large tree blown down. |
| May 2003 | Tornado (F1) | Forest City | - | A tornado touched down west of Forest City (Mason County) and traveled east. On the south side of town, several homes sustained minor to major damage and a mobile home was destroyed. Also, some sheds and garages were destroyed. Numerous trees and power lines were blown down before it moved into Tazewell County. No injuries were reported. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Two power poles were blown down across US Highway 136. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Several power lines were blown down in Forest City. |
| May 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Forest City | - | Two-foot diameter trees were uprooted. |
| February 2026 | Hail | Forest City | - | 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.
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 Forest City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2237542 | 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 408503. 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.
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.








