OSWEGO

Community Information

County: Kendall

Townships: Oswego, Bristol

Population: 30,355 (2010)

Incorporated: 1852

Timezone: CST

Postal code: 60543

Area code: 630, 331

Overview

 

Oswego is a village in Kendall County, Illinois. The village population has more than doubled since the 2000 census count of 13,326. With that growth, Oswego is the largest municipality located completely within Kendall County.

Oswego is known to some Chicago area residents for the town dragstrip, open from 1955 until 1979, where muscle cars were raced by drivers from all over the Midwest. The drag days are celebrated today even though the strip has been closed for decades.

Located about 50 miles west of Chicago in Kendall County at the confluence of Waubonsie Creek and the Fox River, Oswego was settled, at least in part, for its transportation potential. A limestone shelf creates a natural, smooth-bottomed, ford across the river just above the mouth of the creek, making it a favored crossing, first for Native Americans and then for the American settlers who began arriving in the 1830s.

Although Oswego lost the county seat, the extension of the Fox River Branch of the Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad through the village in 1870 proved another economic boost. In 1900, the Aurora Elgin & Yorkville Railway, an interurban trolley line, made another connection to Oswego from Aurora to the north and Yorkville to the south.

In  the mid 1980s, the homebuilding boom in Naperville and Aurora advanced west along the Route 34 corridor, and housing developments began springing up around Oswego . As the pace of development quickened in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Oswego began annexing contiguous properties as a way of exerting some control over the inevitable growth. The village limits extended west of the Fox River for the first time in its history, and also grew east and north to U.S. Route 30.

As Oswego continues to grow, its location on two rail lines, three state highways, and two U.S. highways, along with its continuing economic development and growth, the village is experiencing a period of rapid economic and population growth very similar to that which took place right after Judson and Arnold laid out their new town 160 years ago.

The Oswego Community Unit School District 308 serves Oswego, Boulder Hill, Montgomery, Plainfield, Aurora, Yorkville and Joliet. It operates 22 schools, including one early learning center, 14 elementary schools for grades K-5, 5 junior high schools for grades 6-8, 2 high schools, and one opportunity school.

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