BlockBefore

Gardner, Illinois

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1948 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Garfield Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60424. The Survey maps it on the Gardner quadrangle. 1,366 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 585 feet above sea level.

Gardner within Grundy County

Population over time

2 figures

Gardner fell from 1,463 to 1,366 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
20101,463
20201,366-97 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 10 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

14 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Gardner between 2009 and 2018, burning about 273 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Arson/incendiarism4

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
13 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE12
5 May 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE10
29 May 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE11
26 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRAACE8
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
5 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBRACE2

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Grundy County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Gardner: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay. 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
N.Ill.Coal Co.Clay Shale Pit 2ClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Grundy County

Storms near this place

13 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gardner in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2006LightningGardner$10,000Lightning struck a car on Interstate 55 near Gardner and blew out the windows.
August 2016Flash FloodGardner$5,000Water running over roadways that typically do not flood. Estimated rainfall of over four inches in over an hour.
May 2006Thunderstorm WindGardner$2,000Utility poles were blown down.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindGardner-Photos shared on social media showed trees 1 to 2 feet in diameter blown down onto power lines.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindGardner-A wind gust to 78.7 mph was reported.
September 2021Thunderstorm WindGardner-Trees and powerlines were blown down.
July 2013HailGardner-Quarter size hail was reported near Interstate 55 and Gardner Road.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindGardner-A semi truck was blown over near mile marker 227 on Interstate 55.
June 2015HailGardner-no account filed
May 2006HailGardner-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindGardner-no account filed
April 1994HailGardner-no account filed
April 1994HailGardner-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Grundy 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
South Wilmington2.0 miles10
Mazonia2.2 miles10
East Brooklyn2.6 miles10
Braceville3.7 miles10
Central City3.9 miles10
Centerville (historical)5.0 miles20
Gorman5.5 miles20
Mazon7.0 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 GardnerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2397837The 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 408884. 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.