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.
Population over time
2 figuresPenton 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 201 | |
| 2020 | 163 | -38 (-19%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1899 USGS Wedowee quadrangle1:125000
- 1902 USGS Wedowee quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Milltown quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS La Grange quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
121 since 1994Regional 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 burning | 65 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 8 September 1997 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6.1 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | WEST SIDE OF COOSA RIVER, AL |
| 18 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | 2.5 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 16 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 16 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 12 September 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 41 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | ECR-20120912-002 |
| 10 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milltown Pluton | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | Plagioclase, Quartz |
Storms near this place
4 since 1995Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Penton | $15,000 | The roof was blown off a house just north of Penton in northern Chambers County. |
| April 2017 | Hail | Penton | - | Hail the size of quarters reported along Highway 77. |
| July 2012 | Hail | Penton | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Penton | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapel Hill | 1.9 miles | 13 | |
| Rock Fence | 2.5 miles | 11 | |
| Foster Crossroads | 2.9 miles | 10 | |
| Union Hill | 3.0 miles | 11 | |
| Milltown | 3.5 miles | 11 | |
| Marcoot | 3.6 miles | 13 | |
| White Plains | 3.7 miles | 13 | |
| Shiloh | 3.9 miles | 11 |
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 Penton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1265094 | The 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.






