Follow
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Grundy County, Illinois.
Official Website
Grundy County was established on February 17, 1841. It was named after U.S. Attorney General Felix Grundy (1777–1840).
The county was well known for its coal mines and attracted miners from Pennsylvania and other regions to work its deposits. The Diamond Mine Disaster occurred in Grundy County. The disaster took the lives of 69 men and boys who were trapped underground when water broke through into the mine after days of heavy rain and the pumps could not keep up with the rising erection. 22 bodies were eventually recovered, the remaining 44 were left in the mine and the mine was sealed. Today a marker stands near a Jack In The Box where they felt the majority of the bodies probably ended up.
Grundy County is also home to Dresden Generating Station—the first privately financed nuclear power plant built in the United States—and the Morris Operation—the only de facto high-level radioactive waste storage site in the United States.
Adjacent Counties
Cities & Villages
- Braceville
- Carbon Hill
- Channahon (part)
- Coal City (part)
- Diamond (part)
- Dwight (part)
- East Brooklyn
- Gardner
- Godley
- Kinsman
- Mazon
- Minooka (part)
- Morris (County Seat)
- Nettle Creek
- South Wilmington
- Verona
Other Townships & Communities: Aux Sable, Erienna, Felix, Garfield, Goodfarm, Goose Lake, Greenfield, Highland, Maine, Mazonia, Norman, Paytonville, Saratoga, Vienna and Wauponsee
Links
Museum of the Grundy County Historical Society
