Lake in the Hills, Illinois
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1925 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Algonquin Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60156. The Survey maps it on the Crystal Lake quadrangle. 28,982 people lived here at the 2020 count.
Population over time
2 figuresLake in the Hills grew from 28,965 to 28,982 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 | 28,965 | |
| 2020 | 28,982 | +17 (+0%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 19 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.
- 1925 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1940 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1962 USGS Crystal Lake quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1962 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:62500
- 1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Crystal Lake quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
16,941 words on this townshipHistory of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885; History of McHenry County, Illinois, published 1922 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Algonquin Township covers location, topography, lakes and streams, railroads, name, settlement.
Read the chapter on Algonquin Township - 16,941 words.
Fires near this place
1 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Lake in the Hills in 2009, burning about 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 February 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | D |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Lake in the Hills: 5 producers, 4 past producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algonquin Pit #5 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Algonquin Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Algonquin Sand & Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Carpentersville Pit #25 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Cary Plant & Portable Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Crystal Lake Sand & Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Dundee Pit Meyer Material | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Hoffman Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Steffen Brothers Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
23 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lake in the Hills in 23 storm reports between 2004 and 2025: 11 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2007 | Lightning | Lake In The Hills | $50,000 | Lightning struck a house causing a fire in the attic, which sustained extensive damage. The rest of the house was uninhabitable. |
| June 2008 | Lightning | Lake In The Hills | $5,000 | A house was struck by lightning on Heavens Gate Street. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | Photos shared on social media showed half of a tree split and blown down, a deck awning partially collapsed, and small tree limbs blown down in Lake in the Hills. A tree was also reported down onto a car. |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | Roads were blocked due to trees and power lines that were blown down. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | A photo shared on social media showed a few large tree limbs roughly 6 to 12 inches in diameter that were blown down. A portion of a metal fence was destroyed by the fallen tree limbs. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | A utility pole was blown down onto trees along Randall Road. |
| November 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | Siding was stripped off a building in Lake In The Hills. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | A large tree was blown down. |
| April 2014 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | Several reports of quarter to ping pong ball size hail came in from Lake in the Hills. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | Hail up to nickel size was reported across Lake in the Hills, including nickel size hail at the intersection of Randall Road and Algonquin Road, and dime size hail at the intersection of Randall Road and Ackman Road. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | Three medium sized trees were blown over. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | Nickel size hail was reported near Hilltop and Algonquin Roads. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | A gust to 60 mph was measured in the Lake In The Hills. |
| March 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | Large limbs down |
| April 2015 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Lake In The Hills | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Algonquin | 2.2 miles | 19 | |
| Camp Algonquin | 3.3 miles | 19 | |
| Crystal Manor | 3.5 miles | 19 | |
| Lakewood | 3.5 miles | 19 | |
| Haegers Bend | 3.7 miles | 19 | |
| Crystal Lake | 4.2 miles | 19 | |
| Trout Valley | 4.2 miles | 19 | |
| Turner Camp | 4.3 miles | 19 |
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 Lake in the Hills | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q746488 | 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 411695. 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.









