Live cameras in Round Lake, United States

The village of Round Lake owes its existence to the railroad. In the 1890s landowner Amarias M. White offered the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad free land for a station, and the Milwaukee Road arrived. Soon after, around 1901, the Armour Company began cutting ice from the lake to cool its refrigerator cars, storing enormous blocks for shipment through the warm months. After a fire destroyed the icehouse in 1917, Armour turned the leftover buildings into retreats for its employees, which helped draw new residents. The village incorporated in 1909 with White as its first president.

Growth came much later. Between 2000 and 2010 the population roughly tripled as subdivisions spread across former farmland, and the 2020 census counted about 18,700 people. The Metra station on the Milwaukee District North Line at Route 134 and Cedar Lake Road still links the village to Chicago Union Station, about 44 miles away.

The camera picture

Round Lake’s 96 cameras on LiveLocation are traffic cameras published through the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Gateway traveler information system. They show the state highways serving the village, including Illinois Routes 120, 134 and 60, along with nearby junctions on the way to Grayslake, Mundelein and the lakes to the north. Expect road surfaces, signals and traffic flow rather than lake views. Each picture refreshes after a short interval, and many are snapshots.

Local time is Central. Daylight runs until about 8:30 p.m. around the summer solstice and fades near 4:30 p.m. in December, so short winter afternoons leave only a small window for clear views. Freezing rain and heavy snow can make the commute slow, and the cameras are a quick way to see whether roads have been cleared. On summer weekends, traffic toward the lakes and campgrounds of northwestern Lake County picks up.

Round Lake Beach shares the same lake to the north, and Round Lake Park and Grayslake lie to the east. Their cameras show up further down this page, handy for checking several routes before setting out.

Sources: Round Lake, Illinois - Wikipedia · Round Lake station - Wikipedia.