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Valley Creek, Illinois

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1939 and the latest in 1999. It stands in Silver Creek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61032. The Survey maps it on the Freeport East quadrangle. The federal gazetteer marks this settlement historical: it is no longer a populated place, though the surveys that recorded it still are.

Valley Creek within Stephenson County

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 15 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Silver Creek township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880 - Silver Creek Township

Water Power

One the most valuable and inexhaustible adjuncts to the development of wealth in the city and county, and an auxiliary which, though not fully utilized, has become valuable as a source of revenue, not only to the owners of the riparian rights, but to those leasing the privilege, is the water-power. The early settlers about Pecatonica River appreciated the value of the power that could be diverted therefrom more sensibly than those who came at a later day, when steam had been applied to move the vast amounts of machinery, which in pioneer times, though limited, were dependent upon the turbine, or over shot wheel to propel them, than a succeeding generation, and adapted the same to their uses almost before the prairie soil was broken.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

25,263 words on this township

The History of Stephenson County, Illinois : Containing ... Biographical Sketches ... War Record ... Statistics ... Portraits of Early Settlers ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois, &c. .., published 1880; History of Stephenson County, Illinois : a Record of Its Settlement, Organization, and Three-quarters of a Century of Progress, published 1910 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Silver Creek Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Silver Creek Township - 25,263 words.

Fires near this place

14 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Valley Creek (historical) between 2010 and 2020, burning about 12 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/undetermined8
Debris and open burning5
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
27 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources17-0000102
5 May 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1845
4 May 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1035
29 May 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1046
18 May 2014Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources14-0000049
11 May 2020Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources20-0000054
27 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1031
26 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1030

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Stephenson County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 13 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Valley Creek (historical): 10 past producers, 3 producers. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Freeport PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Dwyer QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Freeport City Eng.Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Kutz QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Meyers PropertyStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Nieman QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Stephenson 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
Browns Mill2.0 miles15
South Freeport2.0 miles14
Evarts3.6 miles16
Ridott Corners3.7 miles16
Ridott4.4 miles16
Hunt Corners4.7 miles16
German Valley4.7 miles14
Freeport4.9 miles15

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1821277. 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.