DePue is a village in Bureau County,

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. The population was 1,633 at the 2020 census. It is part of the

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Micropolitan Statistical Area.

History

DePue, originally called Trenton, was established in 1853. The present name refers to an early French fur trader by the name of De Pue. The site had long been used as a port and

ice harvesting Ice cutting is a winter task of collecting surface ice from lakes and rivers for storage in ice houses and use or sale as a cooling method. Rare today, it was common (see ice trade) before the era of widespread mechanical refrigeration and air ...

center on the

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

. In 1905, the Mineral Point Zinc Company started a plant to produce slab zinc for automobile and appliances in DePue, taking advantage of the nearby coalfields and trained labor force of the LaSalle-

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

zinc processing center. The plant was shortly after acquired by New Jersey Zinc and finally closed in 1990.

Geography

DePue is located at (41.326112, -89.301184). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, De Pue has a total area of , of which (or 92.53%) is land and (or 7.47%) is water.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 1,633 people, 591 households, and 452 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 661 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 45.62%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.35%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 2.57% Native American, 2.94% Asian, 0.06%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 23.09% from other races, and 24.37% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 60.50% of the population. There were 591 households, out of which 41.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.84% were married couples living together, 8.97% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.52% were non-families. 18.44% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.17% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.19 and the average family size was 2.92. The village's age distribution consisted of 29.4% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 22.9% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 140.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 161.4 males. The median income for a household in the village was $61,553, and the median income for a family was $62,500. Males had a median income of $33,182 versus $23,786 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $24,607. About 9.7% of families and 14.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 25.5% of those under age 18 and 6.2% of those age 65 or over.

Lake DePue

The lake and adjacent park feature wildlife and recreation. The

American Power Boat Association The American Power Boat Association (APBA) is an American membership-owned corporation. In 1903, New York's Columbia Yacht Club had formulated a constitution for what ultimately became the APBA. It is the United States sanctioning authority for the ...

(APBA) and the DePue Men's Club (a social and volunteer organization) host a weekend of boat racing on Lake DePue. The event draws spectators from across the country and brings entertainment and food vendors to the lakeside park.

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

visited when he was an Illinois legislator. In a January 16, 2011, news story featured in the online edition of the Peoria ''Journal Star'', Associated Press reporter Tammy Webber reported that the

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or stream pool, pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is meander cutoff, cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether ...

, surrounded by a

Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...

site, is polluted by high levels of metals such as

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12 element, group 12, zinc and mercury (element), mercury. Like z ...

, and

chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

because of the

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron-making, iron, copper extraction, copper ...

activity that takes place there for the automotive and appliance industries, chiefly by New Jersey Zinc and Mobil Chemical. The village is urging Illinois Attorney General

Lisa Madigan Lisa Murray Madigan (born July 30, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she served as Illinois Attorney General, Attorney General of the U.S. state of Illinois from 2003 t ...

to investigate whether the

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) of the state of Illinois is the primary body concerned with the protection of the environment for the state. The Illinois EPA's mission is "to safeguard environmental quality, consiste ...

, which has oversight over the case, is pushing the companies hard enough. This is important because the town alleges the companies and the IEPA have not done enough to combat the pollution that has made the lake markedly shallower. This phenomenon could, unless rapidly remedied, soon interfere with the small municipality's efforts to keep its remaining revenue source for most supplemental projects, the competition. The manufacturing jobs have now entirely disappeared. In the summer of 2012, as a result of both the summer's drought and Lake DePue's pollution, the APBA nearly cancelled its National Championship Races due to the shallow water. In a display of community and hard work, DePue's citizens built a dam at the mouth of the lake and raised the water by using pumps and the lake's springs to the level required for racing in a matter of weeks.

Education

One school building hosts all three village schools, the elementary, the junior high, and the DePue High School. The three schools have classes in different wings of the building. The name of the school district is DePue Unit Schools District #103. Extracurricular activities offered for the grade 6-12 students include sports and clubs. DePue Junior High School offers boys and girls basketball, girls' volleyball, cheerleading, and track. DePue High School offers boys and girls basketball, soccer, girls' volleyball, cheerleading, and track. Extracurricular activities for the junior high school include Art Club, Student Council, Spelling Bee, Video Game Club, and Chess Club. High school activities include Student Council, National Honor Society, and the Activity Club. Annual activities that many clubs sponsor include JH Movie Nights, HS Homecoming and dances, as well as class trips throughout the year.

References

External links

Village of DePue official websiteNew Jersey Zinc / Mobil Chemical community fact sheet
Illinois EPA, August 2012

1976

{{authority control Villages in Bureau County, Illinois Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area 1853 establishments in Illinois Villages in Illinois