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Willow Lake, Illinois

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1939 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Harlem Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61032. It stands on Preston Creek. The Survey maps it on the Freeport West quadrangle.

Willow Lake 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.

In the county-history sources

11,298 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 Harlem Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Harlem Township - 11,298 words.

Fires near this place

16 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Willow Lake between 2010 and 2017, burning about 17 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
Debris and open burning7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Smoking3

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
14 May 2013Smoking1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources13-0000039
14 May 2013Debris and open burning4.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources13-0000038
7 April 2014Debris and open burning1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources14-0000028
27 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1031
22 April 2014Debris and open burning4.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources14-0000039
15 April 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources16-0000025
11 April 2014Smoking1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources14-0000033
1 April 2010Smokingunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources1024

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Stephenson County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 20 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 20 workings within 5 miles of Willow Lake: 17 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
Duth QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Dwyer QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Economy PitStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Freeport City Eng.Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
H. Homan QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Jaeger PitStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Mills 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
West Junction1.7 miles15
Scioto Mills2.4 miles15
Freeport2.6 miles15
Cedarville3.0 miles13
Red Oak4.5 miles13
Damascus4.6 miles15
Winneshiek5.8 miles15
Buckhorn Corners6.3 miles13

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 2806585. 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.