BlockChain of Rocks, Missouri
22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1903 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Monroe Township. It lies in ZIP code area 63369. It stands on Jordan Branch. The Survey maps it on the Maryknoll quadrangle. 97 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 472 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresChain of Rocks grew from 93 to 97 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 | 93 | |
| 2020 | 97 | +4 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 22 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.
- 1903 USGS O'Fallon quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1941 USGS Troy quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1945 USGS Troy quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1949 USGS Saint Louis quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS St. Louis quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS St. Louis quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS St. Louis quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1966 USGS St. Louis quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Maryknoll quadrangle1:24000
- 1979 USGS Maryknoll quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS St Louis quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
In the county-history sources
1,290 words on this townshipHistory of Lincoln County, Missouri, from the Earliest Time to the Present, published 1888 names this settlement in its chapter on Monroe Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Monroe, or "Old Monroe," as it is commonly called, is situated on the St. Louis, Keokuk & Northwestern Railroad, at the crossing of the Cuivre, the town being wholly on the north sido of the river. It is located in the southeastern part of Lincoln County, and, having been the first county seat thereof, it is one of the most historic places in the county. It is also noted for the beautiful mounds that have been constructed there in former ages. The site is beautiful, but the town is small. The original town was laid out some time prior to 1819, by Ira and Almond Cottle and Nathaniel Simonds, the original proprietors. A large portion of it was donated in 1819 to the county for the seat of justice. The large brick house now owned and occupied by Herman Niemeyer was built some seventy-eight years ago, about the year 1810. The county was organized in this house, and the courts held therein while the county seat remained at Monroe. In August, 1820, Almond Cottle was licensed to keep a "tavern," the fee being ยง10 for a year. It is presumed that this is the house in which the "tavern " was kept. With the exception of the Niemeyer residence there had been nothing at Monroe, in the way of buildings, for many years, until the railroad drew near its completion, when it began to revive. It was re-surveyed in 1880 by Charles Du Bois, a civil engineer, and since that time the town as it now exists has principally been built. It contains two general stores kept, respectively, by Albert Isen stein and Herman Niemeyer; a hotel, grocery and livery stable by W. H. Pollard; a hotel by Henry H. Pieper, and a blacksmith shop by Herman Brunes. Isenstein also deals in furniture and farm implements. There is a daily mail between Monroe and Chain of Rocks. The railroad bridge, across the Cuivre at Monroe, has twice been swept away by the pressure of drift collected when the water was high. On the last occasion the drift contained 1,600 saw logs, which floated from the Cuivre and its tributaries. The present bridge is a magnificent one, made mostly of iron. During the last year immense cribs of stone have been constructed in the river, above the bridge piers, to prevent the drift from striking them. It is believed that these cribs of stone will be sufficient to resist the pressure of any amount of drift that will be likely to collect in the future, and thus enable it to be broken and floated down between the piers without injury to the bridge.
Passage source: History of Lincoln County, Missouri, from the Earliest Time to the Present, published 1888.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
1 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Chain of Rocks in 1997, burning about 2 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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 January 1997 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Chain of Rocks: 3 producers, 1 past producer. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meyer Quarry & Plant | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Glacial Sand & Gravel Pit & Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Kimaterials Sand & Gravel Pit/Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unknown S&G | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
2 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chain of Rocks in 2 storm reports in 2013: 1 flash flood, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2013 | Flash Flood | Chain Of Rocks | - | Up to three inches of rain fell in a short amount of time causing flash flooding. At the intersection of Highway C and Green Acres Drive, over a foot of water covered the road, so the road was closed for awhile. |
| January 2013 | Tornado (EF0) | Chain Of Rocks | - | A tornado touched down along Sycamore Bend Road just southwest of Chain of Rocks. A clear path of tree damage was found south of Sycamore Bend Road, where small branches were snapped from most of the trees within a path that was approximately 20 to 30 yards wide. Some minor roof damage was also noted in this area. The top of one pine tree was snapped off and the tree top was thrown to the northeast. The tornado crossed Sycamore Bend Road and continued northeastward along Jordan Road. A few tree trunks were snapped and several large branches were snapped among the trees along both sides of the road near the Jordan Branch Creek. Minor roof damage was found to several residences along Jordan Road north of the creek. The tornado lifted just south of Highway C. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maryknoll | 1.9 miles | 22 | |
| Ethlyn | 2.2 miles | 22 | |
| Highview (historical) | 2.8 miles | 22 | |
| Old Monroe | 3.1 miles | 27 | |
| Owen (historical) | 3.4 miles | 22 | |
| Brevator | 4.3 miles | 27 | |
| Fountain N' Lakes | 4.5 miles | 22 | |
| Chantilly (historical) | 6.1 miles | 22 |
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 Chain of Rocks | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2839665 | 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 715698. 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.