Lerna, Illinois
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Pleasant Grove Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62440. The Survey maps it on the Mattoon East quadrangle. 226 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 741 feet above sea level.
On record in Lerna
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Population over time
2 figuresLerna fell from 286 to 226 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 | 286 | |
| 2020 | 226 | -60 (-21%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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.
- 1934 USGS Mattoon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1937 USGS Mattoon quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Mattoon East quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Effingham quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1998 USGS Mattoon East quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
25,778 words on this townshipThe History of Coles County, Illinois ... Map of Coles County; History of Illinois ... History of Northwest ... Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c., &c, published 1879 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Pleasant Grove Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Pleasant Grove Township - 25,778 words.
Fires near this place
2 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Lerna between 2015 and 2019, burning about 1 acre 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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 March 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 2019-63 |
| 24 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 1303241 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
13 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lerna in 13 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lerna | $126,000 | A line of severe thunderstorms moved across Coles County causing a lot of damage. Three miles southeast of Lerna a machine shed, a small storage shed, and a grain bin were destroyed. Also, a motor home, several vehicles, and a house roof sustained minor damage. Numerous trees and tree limbs were blown down as well. At the same time in the Bushton, Fairgrange, and Charleston areas, several trees were blown down, with one causing minor damage to a building. Also, a barn roof and a grain bin were destroyed. As the storms moved further east, winds blew down numerous trees and tree limbs in the Ashmore area. One tree fell onto a house causing $1,000 in damage and several trees in the local cemetery fell, damaging some grave markers. Also, two large barns were destroyed 2 miles south of Ashmore and numerous homes and other farm buildings sustained minor damage. No injuries were reported and damage was estimated around $125,950. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lerna | $40,000 | A mobile home was destroyed. |
| August 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lerna | $35,000 | Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in Lerna. |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lerna | $28,000 | Several trees were blown down in Lerna. One tree fell on a car, while two others fell on houses, causing roof damage. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lerna | $20,000 | Numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down in Lerna. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lerna | - | A trained spotter estimated a wind gust of 80 mph. A large tree was blown down in his front yard. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Lerna | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Lerna | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Lerna | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Lerna | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Lerna | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Lerna | - | no account filed |
| February 1999 | Hail | Lerna | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newby | 2.2 miles | 14 | |
| Jones | 3.4 miles | 14 | |
| Rolling Green | 4.0 miles | 14 | |
| Country Club Estates | 4.1 miles | 14 | |
| Campbell | 4.4 miles | 12 | |
| Trilla | 4.4 miles | 14 | |
| Loxa | 5.6 miles | 14 | |
| Magnet | 6.0 miles | 14 |
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 Lerna | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2368215 | 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 411955. 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.







