There are at least twelve towns in Illinois containing the word “Mount.” Just how tall are these “mountains” of Illinois? Let’s take a look.
| Town name | Elevation | Population | Notes |
| Mount Morris | 909 feet | 2,998 | 22nd highest town in Illinois |
| Mount Sterling | 705 feet | 2,025 | |
| Mount Auburn | 695 feet | 480 | |
| Mount Zion | 690 feet | 5,833 | |
| Mount Olive | 685 feet | 2,099 | |
| Mount Prospect | 669 feet | 54,167 | In 1871, real-estate agent Ezra Carpenter Eggleston built a four-block residential subdivision on farmland south of the railroad. Eggleston named the area Mount Prospect because the village sat on the highest point in Cook County. Eggleston went bankrupt, since the area failed to prosper until a railroad station was established. (source: Wikipedia) |
| Mount Pulaski | 654 feet | 1,566 | |
| Mount Clare | 650 feet | 278 | |
| Mount Carroll | 640 feet | 1,717 | |
| Mount Vernon | 512 feet | 15,277 | Below the Illinois mean elevation of 600 feet. |
| Mount Carmel | 449 feet | 7,284 | |
| Mount Erie | 390 feet | 88 |
Illinois’ mean elevation of 600 feet above sea level ranks it 39th among the states.
For fun, WBEZ lists some Chicago-area towns with names related to height: Highland Park, Park Ridge, Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights, Palos Heights, Chicago Heights, Ford Heights, Barrington Hills, Palos Hills, Rolling Meadows.
My family is all from the Mt. Pulaski area. My Dad went to Mt. Pulaski High School! I’ll have to let him know he was from one of 8 ‘mount’ towns. He actually grew up on a farm in Chestnut, IL which is the technical CENTER of Illinois. All sorts of fun facts!
Thanks to Leigh’s thrillarama post about the California Zephyr for inspiring my post: http://www.chicagoscope.com/index.php?post_id=390979&comments=on
Did you notice that “Mount Pulaski” is a complete sentence?
And so are “Mount Greenwood” and “Mount Vernon.”
Oh Leigh! *rolls eyes* lol
Mt. Carroll is also home to the Raven’s Grin Inn — a haunted fun house-type place. They’re open year-round (at least they used to be), and the man and woman who own the place actually live there. The owner is a fiberglass artist, so you’ll see all sorts of weird sculptures made from the stuff in the yard, etc. Highly recommended if anyone wants to drive all the way out there. http://www.hauntedravensgrin.com
Lisa, perhaps the “Mount” in Mount Carroll is an indication of the moutain of joy and fun will have in Mount Carroll.
Mount Greenwood. weird. Growing up near Mount Greenwood never led to me to think of the town being related to a mount. I was so accustomed to the name that I never thought about its meaning. The same thing happened to me with “Pearl Jam”. It wasn’t until my junior or senior year in college that I thought of “Pearl Jam” being the jam that surrounds a pearl. At the time of my realization the band had just reached its peak in popularity
I never realized what Pearl Jam meant. I always thought “jam” was like to be jamming. Like playing your instrument. So it’s only taken me 20 years after they hit their peak to realize this.
For fun, we can add the Chicago neighborhood, Mount Greenwood to the list.
Highest elevation: 653 feet (in Mount Greenwood Cemetery).
Population: 18,783 (as of 2015)
Google Maps doesn’t include Mount Greenwood Cemetery in Mount Greenwood. If Google is right, then the highest elevation is 633 feet.
The inclusion or exclusion of Mount Greenwood Cemetery shouldn’t affect the population total. ha ha ha ha ha.
Mount Greenwood is the only Chicago neighborhood with “mount” in the name. Impressive since Chicago has over 200 neighborhoods.
Here’s the 12 most common words used in Chicago neighborhood names:
54 park
24 west
11 east
10 south
9 north
8 village
7 square
6 gardens
5 the
5 old
5 heights
5 beverly
(the number is the frequency of how often the word appears)