BlockMerna, Illinois
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1926 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Towanda Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61761. The Survey maps it on the Merna quadrangle. It stands 810 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 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.
- 1926 USGS Normal quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1930 USGS Normal quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Merna quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fairbury quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1990 USGS Peoria quadrangle1:250000
In the county-history sources
15,602 words on this townshipThe Good Old Times in McLean County, Illinois : Containing Two Hundred and Sixty-one Sketches of Old Settlers, a Complete Historical Sketch of the Black Hawk War and Descriptions of All Matters of Interest Relating to McLean County, published 1874; The History of McLean County, Illinois; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, published 1879 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Towanda Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Towanda Township - 15,602 words.
Fires near this place
1 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Merna in 2013, 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 |
|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 2013-156 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fletcher | 2.3 miles | 14 | |
| Bentown | 3.3 miles | 14 | |
| Barnes | 4.1 miles | 15 | |
| Holder | 4.7 miles | 14 | |
| Hawthorne Hills | 5.0 miles | 15 | |
| Towanda | 5.1 miles | 15 | |
| Eagle Ridge | 5.4 miles | 15 | |
| Padua | 5.6 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 Merna | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6819890 | 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 413436. 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.