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Willow Springs, Illinois

27 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1997. It stands in Lyons Township. It lies in ZIP code area 60480. The Survey maps it on the Palos Park quadrangle. 5,857 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 594 feet above sea level.

Willow Springs within Cook County

Population over time

2 figures

Willow Springs grew from 5,524 to 5,857 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.

YearPeople Change
20105,524
20205,857+333 (+6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 27 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.

Fires near this place

2 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Willow Springs in 2005, burning about 1 acre 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/undetermined2

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
7 June 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
20 May 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cook County

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Willow Springs: 6 past producers, 2 plants, 1 producer. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Perlite. 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
Silbrico Expanded Perilite PlantPerliteProducer
Worth PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Dolese and Shepard Crushed StoneStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Federal Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Mc Cook Yard No. 387 & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenPlant
Summit Quarry Consumers CompanyStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Superior Stone Co QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Unnamed Limestone QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Wester Springs City Eng.-Own CrewsStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cook County

Storms near this place

4 since 2022

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Willow Springs in 4 storm reports between 2022 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2025Thunderstorm WindWillow Springs-A photo showed a large tree limb blown down onto the roof of a mobile home, caving in its roof by about a foot.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindWillow Springs-Several tree limbs were blown down and several manufactured homes suffered minor roof damage where shingles were blown off as well as minor skirting damage.
July 2024Tornado (EF1)Willow Springs-A tornado with estimated peak winds of 90 mph touched down near the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal immediately north of Interstate 294. It moved across a mobile home park where it caused damage to trees and homes north of Park Avenue. The tornado crossed Garden Lane where several large, healthy trees were either uprooted or snapped. Minor shingle, siding and fascia damage to homes also occurred. A greenhouse was blown about 75 feet to the north. The tornado was likely at peak intensity in this area. The tornado continued through a cemetery and broadened considerably as it ended east of Roberts Road near 74th Place.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindWillow Springs-Several tree limbs were blown down.

Every storm recorded in Cook 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
Mount Forest (historical)0.2 miles27
Justice1.2 miles27
Hodgkins1.9 miles24
Gary2.1 miles24
Hickory Hills2.1 miles27
Indian Head Park3.0 miles23
Bridgeview3.0 miles24
Countryside3.0 miles23

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 Willow SpringsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2668434The 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 421269. 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.