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Rock City, Illinois

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1932 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Rock Run Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61070. The Survey maps it on the Davis quadrangle. 293 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 909 feet above sea level.

Rock City within Stephenson County

Population over time

2 figures

Rock City fell from 315 to 293 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.

YearPeople Change
2010315
2020293-22 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 15 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.

In the county-history sources

12,294 words on this township

The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880 names this settlement in its chapter on Rock Run Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

J. li. BliACKMOBE, dealer in drugs, paints and oils ; born in Stephenson Co., Rock Grove Township, in 1843; worked on the farm until he went West, teaching school in Van Buren Co., Iowa, about one year ; then to Kansas, and teaching about one year there ; then returned to Davis, and engaged in drugs. In politics, Democrat ; in religion, Liberal. His wife, Mary Haid, was born in Kansas in 1855 ; married in 1873.

Passage source: The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880.

D. BOLIiM AlV, restaurant and wholesale liquor, stock and grain buyer, Davis ; also keeps a fine stable of horses ; a fine stallion, sired by Iron Sides and Messenger, and a jack. Born in Pennsylvania in 1829 ; came to Illinois in 1854 ; owns town property, and a large barn 30x40 feet. In politics, Democrat ; in religion, Liberal. His father was born in Pennsylvania in 1801 ; his mother, 1803 ; and they now reside with him, as also does his sister.

Passage source: The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880.

UBIAH BOYDEN, farmer, Sec. 20 ; P. 0. Rock City; born in New York in 1808 ; came to Stephenson Co., Sept. 27, 1839 ; bought a claim of 160 acres, and now owns 152, on which he has made improvements ; has two good springs of water on the place. Enlisted Aug. 14, 1862 ; discharged Dec. 21, 1862. In 1852 wentacross the Plains; remained about one year. In politics, Republican ; in religion. Liberal. His wife, Elmira Snyder, was born in New York, 1811 ; married in New York, 1839 ; has had five children - Caroline, now Mrs. March ; Ann Jane, died 1854; Eva Eliza, now Mrs. Bonebright ; Lucinda, now Mrs. Keagle ; Jane, died when young.

Passage source: The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880.

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 Rock Run Township - it names this place 17 more 17 times.

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 16 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of Rock City: 14 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Dornink QuarryLimestone, GeneralPast Producer
Buss QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
D. Zettle PropertyStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Davis QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Faulkner Rock QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Miles QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Schlueter QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Terhark PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Stephenson County

Storms near this place

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rock City in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2017: 5 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2003HailRock City$15,000no account filed
June 2011Thunderstorm WindRock City$5,000Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph downed some power lines onto Highway 75 near Rock City, IL at 954 pm CDT June 8. This report was relayed by the media.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindRock City$1,0005 inch diameter limbs down
June 2000Thunderstorm WindRock City$1,000no account filed
June 2017Flash FloodRock City-Law enforcement relayed a report of a person being rescued in water over a road.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindRock City-Wind gusts estimated to be 65 mph blew down a 20 inch diameter tree onto Dakota Road in Rock City, IL around 933 pm CDT July 22.
June 2008HailRock City-Quarter to baseball-sized hail fell in Rock City, IL at 3:20 pm June 12.
October 2001HailRock City-1.00 to 1.50 inch hail reported by trained spotter. Hail totally covered ground along Rock Grove Road from Orangeville to the county line at Lake Summerset.
April 2015HailRock City-no account filed
April 1996HailRock City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Stephenson 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Epplyanna1.5 miles15
Davis3.0 miles15
Dakota3.5 miles13
Rock Grove4.1 miles13
Winneshiek5.7 miles15
Afolkey5.8 miles13
Ridott8.1 miles16
Buckhorn Corners9.1 miles13

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 Rock CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2671917The 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 416794. 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.