River Grove, Illinois

River Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 10,227 at the 2010 census.GeographyRiver Grove is located at . According to the 2010 census, River Grove has a total area of 2.39sqmi, all land.HistoryJust like nearby Elmwood Park and Oak Park are named after their historic elm and oak trees, River Grove gets its two-part name first from the community's shallow muddy plains river, and second from the majestic groves of American ash trees lining shore of the Des Planes River "Bottomland". Credit goes to the village's early German and Nordic settlers who, already holding a great reverence for the "Mystic Ash" through old world traditions, felt that they were home again among the familiar groves of ash trees, "just like the ones they left behind". Up until the modern day extinction event of the American ash tree species 2006–2018, River Grove was the home to Cook County's second-oldest Green Ash with an estimated age of 240 in the "Old growth" Lafrombose Woods, along with several other living examples of locally evolved White, Green, Black and Blue Ash types 110–160 years of age scattered around the village. Because the invasive Asian Emerald Ash Borer kills off young trees long before they reach seeding age of 10, scientists theorize that the "Fraxinus/ash" species will no longer be able to germinate continued generations by 2018 within the local woods, or only 12 years after EAB was first discovered in River Grove.DemographicsAs of the census of 2010, there were 10,227 people and 4,427 households in the village. The racial makeup of the village was 87.5% White (76.7% Non-Hispanic white), 1.5% African American, 0.4% Native American, 2.2% Asian, and 1.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18.6% of the population.