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Royalton, Illinois

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Six Mile Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62983. The Survey maps it on the Christopher quadrangle. 1,068 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 391 feet above sea level.

Royalton within Franklin County

Population over time

2 figures

Royalton fell from 1,151 to 1,068 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
20101,151
20201,068-83 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 18 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

12 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Royalton between 2010 and 2013, burning about 108 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/undetermined9
Debris and open burning3

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
6 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined70 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMINES
5 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10077
2 April 2013Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources13058
15 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10093
3 March 2011Debris and open burning12 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesMILLS
28 February 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesWRIGHT
10 December 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10346
10 December 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources10345

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Storms near this place

22 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Royalton in 22 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 3 tornado, 2 flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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
October 2001Thunderstorm WindRoyalton1 hurt, $50,000Widespread damage occurred across southern Franklin County, from Christopher, Zeigler, and Royalton east to West Frankfort. Numerous trees were blown down, some landing on houses and taking down power lines. In Mulkeytown, an elderly woman was trapped when a tree landed on her trailer home. She received broken ribs and was taken to a local hospital. Eight roads in the Zeigler area were blocked by fallen trees. A car port was destroyed in West Frankfort.
April 2011Tornado (EF1)Royalton$80,000One home had partial roof loss. Several other homes received either roof or structural damage due to trees falling. Several large branches were driven into the side of a house and barn. Peak winds were estimated near 100 mph. The average path width was 50 yards.
April 1998Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$80,000Approximately 40 homes suffered primarily minor damage in Royalton, with one business losing its roof. One home was severely damaged when a large tree fell on it. The nearly universal south southeast pattern of damage favored damage associated with a downburst. The area of damage was roughly one half mile by one half mile, although trees were down at scattered locations across southwest Franklin County. A car was flattened by a falling tree, and power lines were brought down by tree limbs.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$75,000A silo was destroyed, and several barns and outbuildings were damaged.
October 2010Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$25,000Power lines and trees were down in Royalton and West Frankfort. Some utility poles were snapped. In West Frankfort, limbs and medium-size branches were down, and lawn furniture was tossed around. A fallen light pole blocked traffic on a West Frankfort main thoroughfare.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$10,000Gusts up to 58 MPH downed power lines in Zeigler, and a tree fell on a car in Royalton.
October 1996Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$10,000no account filed
December 2021Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$7,000Trees were snapped. The tin roof on top of a conventional roof of a house was blown off.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindRoyalton$4,000A large tree came down on a power line. Several limbs were down throughout town.
November 2002Tornado (F0)Royalton$1,000A weak tornado caused some tree damage as it crossed a highway just north of Royalton. The tornado was spawned by the same supercell thunderstorm that produced a longer-track tornado in Jackson County.
May 2025HailRoyalton-Estimated hail size, reported via mPING, from the north end of a supercell storm.
March 2023FloodRoyalton-Water was over the road in the center of town.
March 2023Flash FloodRoyalton-Several inches of water were flowing across a road.
March 2020HailRoyalton-There were multiple reports of large hail ranging from one to two inches in diameter in the Royalton and Zeigler areas.
May 2009Tornado (EF0)Royalton-This brief tornado was photographed by emergency management personnel. Leaves were observed in the rotation. No damage was located.
June 2009Heavy RainRoyalton-Standing water was observed on state highways. Some back roads across the county were impassable due to flooding. City streets in Royalton were particularly affected by high water.
November 2002HailRoyalton-Golf ball size hail was reported.
April 2002Thunderstorm WindRoyalton-A trained spotter reported a gust to 60 MPH.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindRoyalton-Several trees and large tree limbs were blown down in Royalton, especially on the north side of town.
March 2023FloodRoyalton-no account filed
June 2009HailRoyalton-no account filed
June 1997HailRoyalton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Franklin 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
Zeigler3.7 miles18
Mitchell4.6 miles18
Lake Creek4.6 miles18
Cleburne5.2 miles18
Plumfield5.8 miles18
Cambon6.4 miles18
Mulkeytown6.5 miles18
Christopher7.3 miles18

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 RoyaltonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q607578The 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 417020. 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.

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.