[4] A team of ten anthropologists and sociologists from nearby University of Chicago studied the city in depth and reported its findings in W. Lloyd Warner, editor, Democracy in Jonesville: A Study of Quality and Inequality (1949).

It is home to the Morris Community High School Redskins, who have won three state championships in football.

[6] There are many small parks, ball diamonds, tennis courts, two golf courses, an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor olympic-sized pool as well as the Gebhard Woods State Park and the William G. Stratton State Park for boat launching on the Illinois River and a skatepark located near White Oak elementary school.

Morris Community High School is known to be located on an abandoned mining network that stems for approximately five miles (8 kilometres).

[7] Morris is known for its downtown, ranked #3 as one of the best Main Streets in Illinois.. Its home to more than 30 independently owned stores and restaurants.

Morris has not been struck by any major tornadoes in recent history, although they occur in Northern Illinois annually.

The Allen Paper Car Wheel Works were based on East North Street in Morris, which supplied the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago from 1867 to 1890 with composite wheels for their railway carriages.

[15][16] By the 1920s, the paper mill had become one of the largest employers in Morris, producing cardboard boxes of various shapes, sizes, and colors that were shipped throughout the US.

[18] In early 1960, the world's first electronic switching system was installed at the Morris central office.