BlockTerra Cotta, Illinois
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1926 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Nunda Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60012. The Survey maps it on the McHenry quadrangle. It stands 817 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 17 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.
- 1926 USGS Mc Henry quadrangle1:62500
- 1926 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1944 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1963 USGS Rockford quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Elgin quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS McHenry quadrangle1:24000
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Nunda township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Wolf Scalps
A few years prior to 1850 the county gave a bounty of $15 for each wolf's scalp that had been taken within the limits of the county. This was a bonanza for the hunters, and not only was this county scoured in search of the valuable prey, but adjoining counties robbed of wolves, which were brought alive across the line into this county where they were killed and bounty claimed on the scalps.
In the county-history sources
24,929 words on this townshipHistory of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885 names this settlement in its chapter on Nunda Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
In 1876 an attempt was made to erect and run a cheese-factory near Grriswold Lake by the farmers, the plan being that shares of $25 each should be taken, and the profits divided according to the number of shares taken by each individual. A number of shares were taken, but not sufficient to complete the project, and "W. H. Mudgett, O. M. Hall and L. A. Parker shouldered the responsibility and completed the building of the factory together with the shareholders at a cost of about $3,500. It has since changed hands several times and is now the property of R. Smith, who is carrying on the business quite successfully. He was preceded in ownership by S. Pool, and he by W. L. Clark, each running about two years.
Passage source: History of McHenry County, Illinois : Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns : Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History : Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, Also a Condensed History of Illinois .., published 1885.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
2 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Terra Cotta between 2009 and 2012, burning about 52 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 | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 April 2012 | Debris and open burning | 49 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | DEFIANCW |
| 17 February 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | D |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Terra Cotta: 6 producers, 4 past producers. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cary Plant & Portable Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Crystal Lake Sand & Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Frams Material Co. Dredge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Island Lake Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Raven Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Reiland Pit, Dredge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Rocky Road Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unnamed Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| West Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Woodstock Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holcombville Corners | 1.2 miles | 17 | |
| Barreville | 2.1 miles | 17 | |
| Prairie Grove | 2.1 miles | 17 | |
| Crystal Lake | 2.9 miles | 19 | |
| Ridgefield | 3.4 miles | 17 | |
| Colby Point | 3.4 miles | 23 | |
| McHenry Shores | 3.4 miles | 17 | |
| Ferndale | 3.4 miles | 23 |
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 Terra Cotta | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q20709723 | 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 423236. 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.