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Photograph of Macktown Historic District
Photograph by Boscophotos, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Macktown Historic District

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

From the record

“The Macktown Historic District is a national historic district encompassing the remains of the Macktown settlement in Winnebago County, Illinois. Established in the late 1830s at the confluence of the Pecatonica and Rock Rivers, Macktown was one of the first settlements in northern Illinois.”

Wikipedia article Macktown Historic District, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 43 National Register listings published here for Winnebago County · listed in 1978 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • Address. W of Rockton on Pecatonica River, Rockton, 61072
  • When was it listed? January 1978
  • Category. district
  • Township. Rockton township
  • National Register reference number. 78001201 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

22,442 words

The chapter on Rockton Township in The History of Winnebago County, Illinois : Its Past and Present, Containing ... a Biographical Directory of Its Citizens, War Record of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois ... Etc, published 1877 names Rockton. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

Thatcher Blake, Ephraim Sumner, Charles "Works, Phineas Churchill, Thomas Lake, and Ephraim Wjmian are living in Kockford, or its immediate vicinity. Thomas B. Talcott, Isaac Adams of Rockton, and A. C. Gleason live at Cherry Yalley; Simon P. Doty, at Belvidere; Harlyn Sliattuck, at Shattuck's Grove, Boone County (P. O. Belvidere); H. M. Wattles (at last authentic account, one year ago), in Minnesota; W. R. Wheeler, Colorado Springs, Colorado; P. M. Waller, Charles City, Iowa; Israel Morrill, Minnesota; David Caswell, Iowa.

Passage source: The History of Winnebago County, Illinois : Its Past and Present, Containing ... a Biographical Directory of Its Citizens, War Record of Its Volunteers in the Late Rebellion, General and Local Statistics ... History of the Northwest, History of Illinois ... Etc, published 1877.

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 Rockton Township - 22,442 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

10 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Macktown Historic District between 2018 and 2020, burning about 8 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 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/undetermined7
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1
Natural1

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
20 June 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources201732
28 May 2018Smokingunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources182208
5 April 2018Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources181387
11 April 2019Natural1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources19407
26 March 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-0274
22 March 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources2018054
17 March 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-0246
13 March 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry Resources18-0230

Every fire recorded in Winnebago County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 19 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Macktown Historic District: 15 past producers, 3 producers, 1 plant. 4 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
Can-Tex Industries Aggregate PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Durgon PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Ellis PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
General Dynamics PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Illinois Wisconsin Sand & GravelSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Kelley Pit & MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionPlant
Manley PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Turtle PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Black QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
E. Sharp QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Winnebago County

Storms near this property

25 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rockton, the town this property stands in, in 25 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 13 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 funnel cloud. 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
June 2014Thunderstorm WindRockton$25,000A garage collapsed due to severe winds.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindRockton$20,000Trees and power lines were blown down. Siding blown off a house. A deck was damaged from a grill that was blown over and a hard top cover was blown off a pool.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindRockton$5,000Patio furniture and a barbeque grill were blown around and damaged. Wind damage was reported to siding and gutters of a few houses.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindRockton$1,000Power lines were blown down and utility poles were leaning over. Shredded tree branches were reported near Hononegah Road.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindRockton$1,000Tree limbs and powerlines were blown down at North Main Street and Route 2 and at 35th Street and Old Gate Road.
July 2025Funnel CloudRockton-A funnel cloud was reported near Rockton moving to the northeast.
August 2025Flash FloodRockton-Flash flooding impacted portions of far northeast Winnebago County, specifically in the vicinity of Rockton. Street flooding was reported near Rockton Rd and Dorr Rd with floodwater reaching into yards. Street flooding was also reported via mPing along I-39 south of McCurry Rd. A private weather station on the east side of Rockton recorded 4.5 of rainfall. Two others nearby recorded closer to 3.5.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindRockton-Tree damage was reported west of Rockton.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindRockton-A photo shared on social media showed a large tree limb blown down.
July 2021Funnel CloudRockton-Several high based funnel clouds were observed from Route 2 near Rockton.
November 2020HailRockton-A photo of vinyl siding of a home showed damaged by wind driven hail. The hail size was estimated.
November 2020Thunderstorm WindRockton-Wind gusts were estimated to 70 mph.
April 2011HailRockton-Penny to nickel size hail was reported in Rockton.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindRockton-Several trees were blown down.
June 2007Flash FloodRockton-Several roads closed with up to 3 feet of standing water.
May 2005HailRockton-Hail ranging from the size of nickels to golfballs fell across far northeast Winnebago County.
May 2003Tornado (F0)Rockton-A tornado touched down west of Rockton near the bend in the Rock River and continued southeast, and lifted northwest of Roscoe. A gas station near 151 and Elevator Road had damage to glass and a wall. No other damage was reported.
September 2001Thunderstorm WindRockton-One tree blown down.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindRockton-Trees and utility poles were blown down by 60mph wind gusts. A mobile home was blown across Illinois Route 251.
April 2026HailRockton-no account filed
April 2023HailRockton-no account filed
March 2006HailRockton-no account filed
July 2003HailRockton-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindRockton-no account filed
April 1996Thunderstorm WindRockton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Winnebago County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Rockton Historic District0.8 miles1978
H.D. Jameson House1.1 miles2003
Chicago & North Western Railway Stone Arch Bridge5.2 miles1993

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 78001201 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Winnebago CountyAll 43 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • 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.