Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Crystal Lake, IL

Crystal Lake is the largest city in McHenry County, Illinois, about 45 miles northwest of Chicago.

The city takes its name from the lake west of downtown: in 1835, early settler Ziba S. Beardsley remarked that its waters were 'as clear as crystal.'

Crystal Lake grew out of two neighboring 1800s communities, Nunda and Crystal Lake; the first settler family, the Crandalls, arrived in February 1836, and the city adopted its charter on September 23, 1914.

Crystal Lake has roughly 40,600 residents living in about 14,800 households, with an average household size of about 2.7 people.

Crystal Lake's population climbed with Chicago's northwest suburban expansion, rising from about 38,000 in 2000 to 40,743 in the 2010 census.

Residents once had to fight for their beach: after an ice company tried to shut off lakefront access, voters created the Crystal Lake Park District in 1921 by a 1,068-to-92 margin and won 1,500 feet of public beach, today's Main Beach.

Ice harvesting built early Crystal Lake: Charles S. Dole's Crystal Ice Company cut ice from the lake, and Dole's 1865 mansion on 12 lakeside acres is now an arts center known as The Dole.

In 2010 the city opened Three Oaks Recreation Area on a reclaimed Vulcan Materials quarry, with a 330-acre lake, a swim beach, a marina, a scuba zone, and a cable wakeboard park.

Three high schools serve the city; the oldest, Crystal Lake Central High School, graduated its first class in 1924.