Ogle County Quick Facts

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Ogle County was formed in 1836 from a part of Jo Daviess County.

The first session of the Ogle County Commissioners’ Court was held on January 3, 1837 in Oregon. Oregon was chosen to be the County Seat.

The county courthouse was built in 1891 at a cost of $106,951, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The interior was renovated in 1984 at a cost of $1,500,000.

The 1998 estimated census showed a population of 50,511.

There are approximately 30,539 registered voters, and about 27,000 parcels of real estate.

There are three state parks and one state forest in Ogle County.

  • Lowden State Park is located one mile north of Oregon. Lorado Taft’s famous Blackhawk statue overlooks the Rock River from a bluff.
  • White Pines State Park is located about seven miles west of Oregon.
  • Castle Rock State Park is located three miles south of Oregon along the west bank of the Rock River.
  • The Lowden-Miller State Forest is located directly across the river from Castle Rock.

The county-owned Weld Park is located about two and a half miles southwest of Stillman Valley.

Camp McCormick Girl Scout camp and Lowden Boy Scout camp are located in Ogle County.

There are many historic sites in the county, including the John Deere museum in Grand Detour, historic museums in Byron, Rochelle and Oregon. Rochelle is home to a popular railroad park.

Major industries in the county include agriculture, printing, food distribution and processing, implement manufacturing, recreation and tourism. ComEd’s Byron nuclear power plant is located south of Byron.

Land Area:
Ogle County is the seventeenth (17th) largest county in Illinois, comprising twenty-four (24) townships totaling 757 square miles or 499,320 acres.

Highest Elevation:
1,023 ft. above mean sea level in the NE 1/4 of Section 3 Maryland Township along a ridge known as “hardpan ridge”, which is about two (2) miles east of Baileyville on Montague Road.

Lowest Elevation:
649.6 ft. above mean sea level, located at the Rock Rivers’s exit from Ogle County into Lee County in Section 8 of Grand Detour Township.

Average Elevation:
The elevation in most of the County is between 700 and 900 ft. above mean sea level.

Vegetation:
Prior to settlement, the area of present-day Ogle County consisted of approximately 58 percent prairie, 27 percent timber, and the remainder was wetland and bottom land forest.

In present-day Ogle County, native prairie is all but non-existent, except for a few scattered prairie remnants found mostly along railroad right -of-ways and rocky and/or sandy ridges and hillsides that have not been tilled. The Byron Forest Preserve and Nachusa Grasslands have restored large areas to native prairie.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, in 1985 Ogle County contained 32,200 acres of forest land, which accounts for 3.8% of the total area of the County. Interestingly, Ogle County presently contains more forest land than at any time after 1924.

Population:
Ogle County’s present population (as of 1998 estimated Census) is 50,511.

Ogle County’s population is projected to continue to grow to a population of 52,000 by the year 2000 and 55,364 by the year 2025.

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