Bureau county was formed in 1837 when Putnam County outgrew the government's ability to provide services for all of its residents. The resulting county covered an area of 814 square miles. Some additional land was subsequently annexed.
The county is located in north central Illinois and is named for Pierre de Beuro, a French Creole who established a trading post on the Illinois River doing business with First Nation peoples until his death in 1790.
Interstate 80 passes through the center of the county running in an east-west direction.
The county seat is Princeton and the county population on July 1, 1999, was 35,355, a decrease of 333 over the 1990 census.
For information on county government, contact the National Association of Counties Web site.
Additional information is available at these pages: