Rockwood, Illinois
23 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Rockwood precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62280. The Survey maps it on the Rockwood quadrangle. 32 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 374 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRockwood fell from 42 to 32 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 | 42 | |
| 2020 | 32 | -10 (-24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 23 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.
- 1916 USGS Campbell Hill quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1918 USGS Campbell Hill quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1949 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Rockwood quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1984 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1994 USGS Rockwood quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
7 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Rockwood between 1995 and 2017, burning about 60 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 70-2013 |
| 8 April 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 390417 |
| 23 March 1995 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Shawnee National Forest | HOG II |
| 19 March 1995 | Debris and open burning | 44 acres | Shawnee National Forest | HOG HILL |
| 17 February 2017 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 200217 |
| 16 February 2017 | Debris and open burning | 4.5 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 190217 |
| 12 February 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.6 acres | Shawnee National Forest | HOG HILL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Rockwood: 2 prospects, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Degonia Sandstone Exposure | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Prospect | ||
| Limestone Prospect | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Occurrence | ||
| Rockwood Sandstone Exposure | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Prospect |
Storms near this place
5 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rockwood in 5 storm reports between 2010 and 2025: 2 tornado, 2 thunderstorm wind, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2025 | Tornado (EF1) | Rockwood | $50,000 | In Randolph County, most tornado damage occurred to trees. A few outbuildings did sustain significant damage to their roofs along the track. The tornado dissipated near Leanderville at approximately 11:55 PM. In Randolph County the tornado was rated EF-1 with a path length of 6.63 miles and a maximum path width of 175 yards. This is a continuation of a tornado that caused EF-1 damage in Bollinger County, MO and EF-2 damage in Perry County, MO. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rockwood | - | Perry County, Missouri (WFO PAH) law enforcement reported two trees downed by thunderstorm winds on Highway 3 northwest of Rockwood, Illinois. |
| April 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rockwood | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large tree limbs around town. |
| February 2017 | Tornado (EF2) | Rockwood | - | The tornado moved out of Perry County (MO-WFO Paducah's forecast area) across the Mississippi River into far southern Randolph County (IL) south of Rockwood. The tornado caused damage to trees and snapped 7 power poles on IL Route 3. It continued to move to the northeast, causing extensive tree damage along Gun Club Road. The damage was rated EF2. The tornado continued northeast into Jackson County (IL) which is serviced by National Weather Service Paducah. This segment of the tornado (Randolph County) was rated EF2 with a path length of 2.94 miles and a max path width of 700 yards. No injuries or deaths were reported in Randolph County. The entire tornado was rated EF4. It's path length was 50 miles with a max path width of 1056 yards (0.6 of a mile). One death and 12 injuries were reported with this tornado. |
| June 2010 | Flood | Rockwood | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leanderville | 5.4 miles | 19 | |
| Shiloh Hill | 7.2 miles | 20 | |
| Wine Hill | 7.6 miles | 19 | |
| Welge | 8.0 miles | 19 | |
| Campton | 8.1 miles | 23 | |
| Chester | 8.2 miles | 23 | |
| Menard | 8.8 miles | 23 | |
| Randolph | 9.1 miles | 19 |
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 Rockwood | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q876528 | 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 416859. 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.











