Lake Villa Township, Lake County, Illinois
Lake Villa Township is located in northwestern Lake County, Illinois. The population was 40,276 at the 2010 census. Geography. Lake Villa Township has a total area of , of which or 12.47% is water. Geologically, it is a region of glacial till, with numerous glacial lakes and wetlands. Principal lakes are Cedar Lake, Deep Lake, Crooked Lake, Sand Lake, Miltmore Lake, and Fourth Lake. History. Lake Villa Township was created in 1913 from parts of Antioch, Avon, and Grant townships. Early settlements, long predating the creation of the township, included Monaville and Stanwood. In 1883 , the Chicago businessman Ernst Johann Lehmann bought in Stanwood, had the name changed to Lake Villa, and established the Lake Villa Hotel. Lehmann encouraged the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company to lay its new railway through the area, and in 1886 the new line opened with a station in Lake Villa. The Lehmann family would come to dominate the immediate area, for a time. The railroad acted as a spur to enterprise beyond the farming which was the mainstay of the larger region. Resorting was the principal industry in the township into the 1930s. Prior to modern refrigeration, ice cutting drew  seasonal labor. The most important development following the Lehmann era was probably the creation of the village of Lindenhurst, subdivided by N. H. Engle and Sons in 1952 on the former Lehmann estate. The village was incorporated in 1956 and quickly became a force in the township. Over the past decade the township landscape has become increasingly marked by subdivisions and strip malls, with a corresponding reduction in farm- and woodland. However, large areas of green space have been preserved by the Lake County Forest Preserves; units include Duck Farm, Grant Woods, Hastings Lake, and MacDonald Woods. Lake Villa Township