Merritt, Illinois

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1924 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Merritt precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62650. It stands on Willow Branch. The Survey maps it on the Winchester quadrangle. 48 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 600 feet above sea level.

Merritt within Scott County

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 12 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.

1924 USGS Winchester quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1924 USGS Winchester quadrangle1:48000
1926 USGS Winchester quadrangle1:62500
1948 USGS Quincy quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1956 USGS Quincy quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1983 USGS Winchester quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Meredosia quadrangle1:100000
1990 USGS Meredosia quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

4 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Merritt between 2008 and 2017, burning about 12 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	2
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
5 April 2008	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	PROFFITT
17 March 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	72
29 November 2017	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	17535
5 October 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6.0 acres	Illinois Division of Forestry Resources	CLAYTON

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Riggston

Every fire recorded in Scott County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Merritt: 1 occurrence, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Exeter Clay Pit	Clay	Past Producer
	Limestone Prospect	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Scott County

Storms near this place

2 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Merritt in 2 storm reports in 2014: 1 flash flood, 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
June 2014	Flash Flood	Merritt	-	Several periods of thunderstorms resulted in 2.50 to 4.50 inches of rain and flash flooding in northern Scott County. Numerous streets in the city of Winchester were flooded and closed. Nearly all rural roads in the northern half of Scott County line were impassable. Old Route 36 was also closed for several hours from the Morgan County line to north of Winchester.
June 2014	Flood	Merritt	-	Several periods of thunderstorms resulted in 2.50 to 4.50 inches of rain and flash flooding in northern Scott County. Numerous streets in the city of Winchester were flooded and closed. Nearly all rural roads in the northern half of Scott County line were impassable. Old Route 36 was also closed for several hours from the Morgan County line to north of Winchester. Additional rainfall during the early morning hours of June 11th caused roads to remain closed through the entire morning.

Every storm recorded in Scott 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Riggston	1.4 miles	12
Exeter	4.3 miles	12
Winchester	6.2 miles	12
Bluffs	6.8 miles	13
Oxville	7.7 miles	13
Bloomfield	8.6 miles	13
Columbus (historical)	10.5 miles	13
Naples	10.6 miles	13

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 Merritt	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6820324	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 413445. 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.