Big Foot Prairie is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

in McHenry County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It was named a CDP for the 2020 census, at which time it had a population of 65. It is located in Chemung Township. Big Foot Prairie is located on

U.S. Route 14 U.S. Route 14 (abbreviated U.S. 14 or US 14), an east–west route, is one of the original United States highways of 1926. It currently has a length of 1,398 miles (2,250 km), but it had a peak length of 1,429 miles (2,300 km). For ...

, north of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. The community extends north into Walworth County,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, where there is a CDP of the same name in the town of Walworth.

History

The community is named for Big Foot, a

Potawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

leader who resided on nearby Kishwauketoe (today Geneva Lake in Wisconsin) until his band was forcibly removed by the United States in 1836. It once had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional se ...

, which opened on May 15, 1848.

Demographics

2020 census

References

Census-designated places in Illinois Census-designated places in McHenry County, Illinois Chicago metropolitan area Populated places established in 1848 Majority-minority cities and towns in McHenry County, Illinois {{McHenryCountyIL-geo-stub