Nilwood, Illinois
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1923 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Nilwood Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62672. The Survey maps it on the Virden South quadrangle. 201 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 669 feet above sea level.
On record in Nilwood
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
- Route 66, Girard to Nilwoodlisted 2002
Population over time
2 figuresNilwood fell from 239 to 201 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 | 239 | |
| 2020 | 201 | -38 (-16%) |
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.
- 1923 USGS Carlinville quadrangle1:48000
- 1925 USGS Carlinville quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1931 USGS Carlinville quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Decatur quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Virden South quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Litchfield quadrangle1:100000
- 1998 USGS Virden South quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
1,043 words on this townshipHistory of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911 names this settlement in its chapter on Nilwood Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Nilwood township is a rich agricultural region and is bounded on the north by Girard, on the west by South Otter, on the south by Shaw's Point township, and on the east by Montgomery county, and lies in the northeastern part of the county in the eastern tier of townships. It is well drained by Macoupin creek and its tributaries.
Passage source: History of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911.
The town of Nilwood is located on section 18, on the line of the Chicago & Alton railroad and is about eight miles northeast of Carlinville, the county seat. It was laid out by Samuel Mayo and Philander Bayly and surveyed in 1855 by F. H. Chapman.
Passage source: History of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911.
Most of Nilwood lies within Nilwood township. In 1900 there were 420 inhabitants. The population now numbers but 399. The chief industry of the village is from the contiguous mines. There are but one or two business houses, a church and schoolhouse. The Illinois Traction System's interurban electric road runs through the town and parallels the Chicago & Alton.
Passage source: History of Macoupin County, Illinois : Biographical and Pictorial, published 1911.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Nilwood: 3 past producers, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Vermiculite, Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shelby Sand & Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Shelbyville Shale Exposure | Clay | Prospect | ||
| I. V. Quarry | Vermiculite | Past Producer | ||
| I. V. Quarry | Vermiculite | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Nilwood in 10 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nilwood | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Hail | Nilwood | $1,000 | Large hail damaged a car windshield just west of Nilwood. |
| June 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nilwood | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large trees. Just northwest of Nilwood, an 18 to 24 inch diameter tree was snapped off at the base. In Atwater, a mature pine tree was uprooted. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nilwood | - | Two 80 by 30 foot storage sheds were destroyed. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nilwood | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large trees along Emmerson Airline Road. |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nilwood | - | Thunderstorm winds blew the roofs off of two sheds just northwest of Nilwood. Much of the debris was scattered north and east of the property. Several pieces of wood from the sheds were sticking out of the mud in a nearby corn field. |
| February 2008 | Flash Flood | Nilwood | - | Two to four inches of rain fell over portions of Macoupin county during the evening hours of February 5th. The viaduct on Illinois Route 16 in Shipman was flooded and viaducts on the north and south sides of Carlinville on Illinois Route 4 were flooded. Also, water was reported over several roads including Enslow Road just northeast of Standard City. Briar Creek on the east side of Carlinville overflowed its banks, causing minor flooding on several streets in the area. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Nilwood | - | Local law enforcement reported several large trees down. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Nilwood | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Hail | Nilwood | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greenridge | 1.7 miles | 14 | |
| McVey | 3.3 miles | 12 | |
| Standard City | 3.4 miles | 14 | |
| Girard | 3.6 miles | 14 | |
| Anderson | 4.2 miles | 14 | |
| Schoper | 4.3 miles | 14 | |
| Atwater | 6.3 miles | 10 | |
| Virden | 7.4 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 Nilwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q575946 | 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 414526. 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.
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.







