BlockBefore

Penton, Alabama

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1978. It stands in the Milltown census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36862. The Survey maps it on the Milltown quadrangle. 163 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 807 feet above sea level.

Penton within Chambers County

Population over time

2 figures

Penton fell from 201 to 163 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010201
2020163-38 (-19%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

121 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 121 fires within 5 miles of Penton between 1994 and 2020, burning about 852 acres in total. None started naturally. 12 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning65
Missing data/not specified/undetermined20
Arson/incendiarism12
Equipment and vehicle use11
Recreation and ceremony7
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Smoking2
Misuse of fire by a minor2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 1998Debris and open burning1.5 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
8 September 1997Debris and open burning1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
3 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.1 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionWEST SIDE OF COOSA RIVER, AL
18 September 2005Debris and open burning2.5 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
16 September 2010Debris and open burning3.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
16 September 2010Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
12 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined41 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionECR-20120912-002
10 September 2002Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Chambers County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Penton: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Milltown PlutonStone, Crushed/BrokenPast ProducerPlagioclase, Quartz

Every working recorded in Chambers County

Storms near this place

4 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Penton in 4 storm reports between 1995 and 2017: 3 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 1995Thunderstorm WindPenton$15,000The roof was blown off a house just north of Penton in northern Chambers County.
April 2017HailPenton-Hail the size of quarters reported along Highway 77.
July 2012HailPenton-no account filed
June 2007HailPenton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chambers County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Chapel Hill1.9 miles13
Rock Fence2.5 miles11
Foster Crossroads2.9 miles10
Union Hill3.0 miles11
Milltown3.5 miles11
Marcoot3.6 miles13
White Plains3.7 miles13
Shiloh3.9 miles11

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on PentonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1265094The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 124600. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.