Yates City, Illinois
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1941 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Salem Township. It lies in ZIP code area 61572. The Survey maps it on the Yates City quadrangle. 642 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 669 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresYates City fell from 693 to 642 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 | 693 | |
| 2020 | 642 | -51 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1941 USGS Maquon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Maquon quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Yates City quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Galesburg quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Galesburg quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Burlington quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
3,803 words on this townshipPortrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois, published 1886 names this settlement in its chapter on Salem Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
William Davis was the first man to hold the scales' of justice, and it is said of him that he did it with a fair but strong hand. On the farm located by Sala Blakeslee may be seen some fine old cliestnut trees, grown from seed planted by him in 18+6.
Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois, published 1886.
There are ten school districts in this township, one graded school and nine ungraded. The school property was valued at $14,650. In the ten districts there are two brick and eight frame school-houses. Of the persons under 2 i years of age there were 767, of whom 554 were of school age, 473 beingenroUed.
Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois, published 1886.
In addition to this, Yates City has a good banking institution, known as the Farmers' Bank, which is ably presided over by L. F. Wenman. Several large business houses,, lumber-yards and elevator, and many other buaness establishments are located here. There is here a co-operative store, which was organized in the spring of 1875. Its capital stock now is $20,000, and the business is carried on in a two-story brick building, which was erected by this corap)any at a cost of $3,000. They are now out of debt and have a fund large enough to meet purchasing demaruis, and hereafter it is proposed to pay dividends.
Passage source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Knox County, Illinois, published 1886.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Salem Township - it names this place 8 more 8 times.
Fires near this place
6 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Yates City between 2002 and 2013, burning about 50 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 | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 April 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 40513 |
| 23 March 2013 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 323133 |
| 23 March 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Illinois Division of Forestry Resources | 323132 |
| 23 March 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 31 December 2002 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
| 4 October 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
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 Yates City: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| County Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
20 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Yates City in 20 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 12 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2013 | Flash Flood | Yates City | $39,500,000 | Torrential rainfall of 4.00 to 8.00 inches resulted in damage to thousands of houses and businesses in the county, including several in the cities of Galesburg and Knoxville. Every creek and stream in the county was flooded. Nearly every road in the county was impassable, and several water rescues were made. This rainfall lead to record or near record flooding on the Spoon River from April 18th through the 24th. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | $300,000 | Several trees were blown down, including some up to 3-feet in diameter. Several homes and buildings were damaged by falling trees and limbs. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | $12,000 | Numerous tree limbs were blown down. Corn stalks were knocked over and broken in two. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | $1,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down several large trees, as well as, several power poles in Yates City. No injuries were reported. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | A few tree branches were blown down. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | Several trees and power lines were blown down. |
| November 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | A large structure was damaged and overturned near Yates City. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | Several large tree limbs were blown down. |
| May 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | Numerous large tree branches were blown down, some of which fell on power lines. |
| April 2013 | Flood | Yates City | - | Torrential rainfall of 4.00 to 8.00 inches resulted in damage to thousands of houses and businesses in the county, including several in the cities of Galesburg and Knoxville. Every creek and stream in the county was flooded. Nearly every road in the county was impassable, and several water rescues were made. The flash flooding was so significant that creeks stayed in flood and most roads remained closed until the afternoon of April 22nd. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | Numerous corn fields were flattened around Yates City. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | A few trees were blown down.| |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | A power line was blown down. |
| May 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Yates City | - | A tornado briefly touched down in a field 8 miles west southwest of Yates City. No injuries or damage were reported. |
| February 2024 | Hail | Yates City | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Yates City | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Yates City | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Yates City | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Yates City | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Yates City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas | 3.7 miles | 16 | |
| Elba Center | 4.8 miles | 16 | |
| Uniontown | 4.9 miles | 16 | |
| Eugene | 7.5 miles | 16 | |
| Maquon | 8.1 miles | 16 | |
| Rapatee | 8.8 miles | 17 | |
| Williamsfield | 9.9 miles | 16 | |
| Trenton Corners | 10.4 miles | 16 |
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 Yates City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q576370 | 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 421561. 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.








