Prairie Grove, Illinois
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1926 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Nunda Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60012. The Survey maps it on the McHenry quadrangle. 1,963 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 751 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPrairie Grove grew from 1,904 to 1,963 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 | 1,904 | |
| 2020 | 1,963 | +59 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 17 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 Mc Henry quadrangle1:62500
- 1926 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1944 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:24000
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Nunda township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Wolf Scalps
A few years prior to 1850 the county gave a bounty of $15 for each wolf's scalp that had been taken within the limits of the county. This was a bonanza for the hunters, and not only was this county scoured in search of the valuable prey, but adjoining counties robbed of wolves, which were brought alive across the line into this county where they were killed and bounty claimed on the scalps.
In the county-history sources
24,929 words on this townshipHistory of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Nunda Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
W. 3. Mudgett was born in Nunda Township, on the farm he now owns, May 17, 1844, a son of J. H. and Polly Mudgett. He attended school till the breaking out of the war, and in the spring of 1861 enlisted in Company C, Thirty-seventh Illinois Infantry, as a private; was afterward promoted to Corporal. He participated in the battles of Sugar Creek, Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Vicksburg, Red River campaign, Mobile. He was mustered out June 20, 1866, having served five years and fifteen days. Since his return home he has followed farming, and now owns 190 acres of land. He was married Oct. 28, 1867, to Emma, daughter of John and Maria Claxton. They have three children - Earl, Minnie and Victor. Politically Mr. Mudgett is a National Greenbacker. He is a member of Wauconda Post, G A. R.
Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
3 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Prairie Grove between 2009 and 2012, burning about 53 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 | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 July 2012 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 12-01725 |
| 3 April 2012 | Debris and open burning | 49 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | DEFIANCW |
| 17 February 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | D |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Prairie Grove: 6 producers, 3 past producers, 1 plant. 7 still produce. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cary Plant & Portable Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Crystal Lake Sand & Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Frams Material Co. Dredge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Green Valley East Gate Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Island Lake Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Possum Run Pit & Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Plant | ||
| Raven Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Reiland Pit, Dredge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Rocky Road Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
2 since 2017Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Prairie Grove in 2 storm reports between 2017 and 2021: 1 heavy rain, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Prairie Grove | - | Parts of large trees were snapped off. |
| June 2017 | Heavy Rain | Prairie Grove | - | Heavy rainfall of 1.25 inches was measured in 30 minutes near Walkup and Crystal Springs Road. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barreville | 0.2 miles | 17 | |
| Colby Point | 1.7 miles | 23 | |
| Burtons Bridge | 1.7 miles | 23 | |
| Ferndale | 1.9 miles | 23 | |
| Holiday Hills | 2.1 miles | 23 | |
| Terra Cotta | 2.1 miles | 17 | |
| Oakwood Hills | 2.4 miles | 19 | |
| McHenry Shores | 2.8 miles | 17 |
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 Prairie Grove | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2257106 | 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 1669476. 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.









