Otter, Illinois

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1925 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Otter Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61364. The Survey maps it on the Streator North quadrangle. The federal gazetteer marks this settlement historical: it is no longer a populated place, though the surveys that recorded it still are.

Otter within LaSalle County

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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.

1925 USGS Streator quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1927 USGS Streator quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
1958 USGS Aurora quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1961 USGS Aurora quadrangle1:250000
1983 USGS Streator North quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Ottawa quadrangle1:100000
1991 USGS Ottawa quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

519 words on this township

History of LaSalle County, Illinois : Its Topography, Geology, Botany, Natural History, History of the Mound Builders, Indian Tribes, French Explorations, and a Sketch of the Pioneer Settlers of Each Town to 1840, with an Appendix, Giving the Present Status of the County, Its Population, Resources, Manufactures and Institutions, published 1877 names this settlement in its chapter on Otter Creek Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Otter Creek township, embracing T. 31, R. 4, originally a part of the town of Bruce, was detached and made a town in 1871, and named from the creek of that name which runs from east to west across the town near its centre, and with its principal branch, Wolf creek, furnishes a small area of good timber.

Passage source: History of LaSalle County, Illinois : Its Topography, Geology, Botany, Natural History, History of the Mound Builders, Indian Tribes, French Explorations, and a Sketch of the Pioneer Settlers of Each Town to 1840, with an Appendix, Giving the Present Status of the County, Its Population, Resources, Manufactures and Institutions, published 1877.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Otter Creek Township - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

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 Otter (historical): 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. 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
	Feken Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
	Streator Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

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
Richards	3.0 miles	11
Kernan	3.2 miles	8
Evans Heights Housing Project	3.6 miles	11
Delbert Egan Housing Project	4.3 miles	11
Grand Ridge	4.9 miles	11
Streator	5.0 miles	11
Kangley	5.5 miles	11
Altmar	6.6 miles	11

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1816108. 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.