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.
Population over time
2 figuresRoyalton 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,151 | |
| 2020 | 1,068 | -83 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 18 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.
- 1910 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1936 USGS Herrin quadrangle1:62500, 2 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 Christopher quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Carbondale quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
12 since 2010Regional 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/undetermined | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 70 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MINES |
| 5 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10077 |
| 2 April 2013 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 13058 |
| 15 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10093 |
| 3 March 2011 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | MILLS |
| 28 February 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | WRIGHT |
| 10 December 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10346 |
| 10 December 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 10345 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
22 since 1996Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | 1 hurt, $50,000 | Widespread 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 2011 | Tornado (EF1) | Royalton | $80,000 | One 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 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $80,000 | Approximately 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 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $75,000 | A silo was destroyed, and several barns and outbuildings were damaged. |
| October 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $25,000 | Power 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 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $10,000 | Gusts up to 58 MPH downed power lines in Zeigler, and a tree fell on a car in Royalton. |
| October 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $10,000 | no account filed |
| December 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $7,000 | Trees were snapped. The tin roof on top of a conventional roof of a house was blown off. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | $4,000 | A large tree came down on a power line. Several limbs were down throughout town. |
| November 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Royalton | $1,000 | A 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 2025 | Hail | Royalton | - | Estimated hail size, reported via mPING, from the north end of a supercell storm. |
| March 2023 | Flood | Royalton | - | Water was over the road in the center of town. |
| March 2023 | Flash Flood | Royalton | - | Several inches of water were flowing across a road. |
| March 2020 | Hail | Royalton | - | There were multiple reports of large hail ranging from one to two inches in diameter in the Royalton and Zeigler areas. |
| May 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | Royalton | - | This brief tornado was photographed by emergency management personnel. Leaves were observed in the rotation. No damage was located. |
| June 2009 | Heavy Rain | Royalton | - | 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 2002 | Hail | Royalton | - | Golf ball size hail was reported. |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | - | A trained spotter reported a gust to 60 MPH. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Royalton | - | Several trees and large tree limbs were blown down in Royalton, especially on the north side of town. |
| March 2023 | Flood | Royalton | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Royalton | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Royalton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zeigler | 3.7 miles | 18 | |
| Mitchell | 4.6 miles | 18 | |
| Lake Creek | 4.6 miles | 18 | |
| Cleburne | 5.2 miles | 18 | |
| Plumfield | 5.8 miles | 18 | |
| Cambon | 6.4 miles | 18 | |
| Mulkeytown | 6.5 miles | 18 | |
| Christopher | 7.3 miles | 18 |
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 Royalton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q607578 | 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 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.










