Simpson, Illinois
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1996. It stands in Simpson precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 62985. It lies near Johnson Ridge. The Survey maps it on the Bloomfield quadrangle. 44 people lived here at the 2020 count.
Population over time
2 figuresSimpson fell from 60 to 44 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 | 60 | |
| 2020 | 44 | -16 (-27%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
13 surveys from 20 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.
- 1918 USGS Vienna quadrangle1:62500
- 1919 USGS Vienna quadrangle1:62500
- 1942 USGS Vienna 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
- 1966 USGS Bloomfield quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1984 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1996 USGS Bloomfield quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
44 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of Simpson between 1992 and 2020, burning about 240 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 18 |
| Debris and open burning | 11 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Shawnee National Forest | JACKSON FALLS CAMPFIRE #2 |
| 29 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Shawnee National Forest | JACKSON FALLS CAMPFIRE 1 |
| 27 September 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Shawnee National Forest | SIMPSON LAKE 2 |
| 26 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Shawnee National Forest | MCCONNEL |
| 11 August 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 12 acres | Shawnee National Forest | FALLS |
| 21 July 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.2 acres | Shawnee National Forest | MCCONNEL |
| 7 April 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 13014 |
| 7 April 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.9 acres | Shawnee National Forest | SIMPSON LAKE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Simpson: 1 past producer. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dixon Springs Sandstone Exposure | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Simpson in 7 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Simpson | $3,000 | A few trees and large limbs were blown down. |
| May 2024 | Flood | Simpson | - | Water over the road near Simpson. |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Simpson | - | Several trees were blown down. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Simpson | - | Three trees were blown down across county roads. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Simpson | - | no account filed |
| March 2012 | Hail | Simpson | - | no account filed |
| February 2007 | Hail | Simpson | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross Roads (historical) | 1.2 miles | 20 | |
| Flatwoods | 3.4 miles | 19 | |
| Reynoldsburg | 3.5 miles | 19 | |
| Pond | 4.4 miles | 20 | |
| Wartrace | 4.9 miles | 20 | |
| Ozark | 5.2 miles | 19 | |
| Grantsburg | 5.3 miles | 19 | |
| Sandburn | 5.5 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 Simpson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q740669 | 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 418528. 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.












