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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.

Rockwood within Randolph County

Population over time

2 figures

Rockwood 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.

YearPeople Change
201042
202032-10 (-24%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 23 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.

Fires near this place

7 since 1995

Regional 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 burning3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Arson/incendiarism1
Equipment and vehicle use1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
28 September 2013Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources70-2013
8 April 2017Equipment and vehicle use3.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources390417
23 March 1995Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresShawnee National ForestHOG II
19 March 1995Debris and open burning44 acresShawnee National ForestHOG HILL
17 February 2017Debris and open burning3.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources200217
16 February 2017Debris and open burning4.5 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources190217
12 February 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.6 acresShawnee National ForestHOG HILL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Randolph County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Degonia Sandstone ExposureStone, Crushed/BrokenProspect
Limestone ProspectStone, Crushed/BrokenOccurrence
Rockwood Sandstone ExposureStone, Crushed/BrokenProspect

Every working recorded in Randolph County

Storms near this place

5 since 2010

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2025Tornado (EF1)Rockwood$50,000In 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 2024Thunderstorm WindRockwood-Perry County, Missouri (WFO PAH) law enforcement reported two trees downed by thunderstorm winds on Highway 3 northwest of Rockwood, Illinois.
April 2022Thunderstorm WindRockwood-Thunderstorm winds blew down several large tree limbs around town.
February 2017Tornado (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 2010FloodRockwood-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Randolph 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
Leanderville5.4 miles19
Shiloh Hill7.2 miles20
Wine Hill7.6 miles19
Welge8.0 miles19
Campton8.1 miles23
Chester8.2 miles23
Menard8.8 miles23
Randolph9.1 miles19

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 RockwoodAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q876528The 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.