Eldorado
Sign in to saveAlso known as Eldorado, Illinois, Eldorado, IL
city in Saline County, Illinois, United States
Key facts
- Country
- United States
- State
- Illinois
- County
- Saline
- Founded by
- Samuel Elder and Joseph Read
- Total
- 2.54 sq mi (6.59 km )
- Land
- 2.50 sq mi (6.48 km )
- Water
- 0.042 sq mi (0.11 km )
- Elevation
- 387 ft (118 m)
- Density
- 1,495.3/sq mi (577.32/km )
- Time zone
- UTC-6 ( CST )
- Summer dst
- UTC-5 ( CDT )
- Fips code
- 17-23009
via Wikipedia infobox
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Eldorado (/ˌɛldəˈreɪdoʊ, -də/) is a city in Saline County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, Eldorado had a population of 3,743. The population peaked in 1980 at 5,198. Although the city's name is spelled as if it were Spanish, the name was originally "Eldereado" or "Elder-Reado" (depending on the source)—a combination of the last names of the town's two founders, Judge Samuel Elder, his son William, grandson Francis Marion, and neighbor Joseph Read, and his brother William. According to legend, a signpainter for the railroad painted the name "Eldorado" on the train depot; as a result, the spelling and pronunciation (el-do-RAY-doh) was forever changed.
Eldorado is included in the Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area and is a bedroom community in the Harrisburg micropolitan statistical area.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Eldorado” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.