Forest Lake, Illinois
21 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1923 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Ela Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60047. The Survey maps it on the Lake Zurich quadrangle. 1,784 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 797 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresForest Lake grew from 1,659 to 1,784 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 | 1,659 | |
| 2020 | 1,784 | +125 (+8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 21 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.
- 1923 USGS Barrington quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1935 USGS Barrington quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Lake Zurich quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Barrington quadrangle1:62500
- 1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Lake Zurich quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1998 USGS Lake Zurich quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
2 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Forest Lake in 2012, burning about 24 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 |
|---|---|
| Fireworks | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 July 2012 | Fireworks | 5.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 12-2395-27 |
| 4 July 2012 | Fireworks | 19 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 12-0848 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Forest Lake: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Perlite, Stone, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filter Materials Perlite Plant | Perlite | Producer | ||
| Mundelein Pit | Stone | Past Producer | ||
| Unamed Limestone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Forest Lake in 8 storm reports between 2007 and 2021: 4 flash flood, 2 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2017 | Flash Flood | Forest Lake | $25,000 | At least 10 people were rescued from submerged vehicles on Route 41 near Deerpath Road and on Washington Circle. No injuries were reported. A few homes in the area were also reported flooded. Storm total rainfall of 4.54 inches was measured two miles north northeast of Lake Forest and 4.28 inches was measured one mile north of Lincolnshire. |
| September 2013 | Lightning | Forest Lake | $25,000 | Lightning struck a house in the 300 block of Ravine Park Drive punching a hole in the roof and damaging a third story bedroom. No one was injured. |
| September 2021 | Hail | Forest Lake | - | Quarter size hail was reported near Quentin and Lake Zurich Roads. |
| May 2020 | Flash Flood | Forest Lake | - | Route 41 was closed due to flooding at Route 60. Several cars were stranded in flood waters at Deerpath Road and Skokie Highway where drivers were rescued from their cars. |
| June 2013 | Flash Flood | Forest Lake | - | Route 41 Was flooded and closed at Gage Lane. |
| October 2013 | Flood | Forest Lake | - | Heavy rain caused 3 to 4 inches of standing water on the streets of downtown Lake Bluff. In Buffalo Grove, 2.08 inches of rain fell in 45 minutes. |
| May 2011 | Flash Flood | Forest Lake | - | Deerpath Road was closed under the Route 41 overpass due to flash flooding. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Forest Lake | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beacon Hill | 0.5 miles | 21 | |
| Heather Highlands | 0.6 miles | 21 | |
| Hawthorn Woods | 0.7 miles | 21 | |
| Fairfield | 0.9 miles | 21 | |
| Cedar Creek | 0.9 miles | 21 | |
| Foxborough Estates | 1.1 miles | 21 | |
| Woodland Estates | 1.1 miles | 21 | |
| Herons Crossing | 1.1 miles | 21 |
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 Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q579999 | 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 408513. 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.










