Sims Chapel, Alabama
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the McIntosh census division. It lies in ZIP code area 36553. It stands on Odom Branch. The Survey maps it on the Sims Chapel quadrangle. 145 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 85 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSims Chapel fell from 153 to 145 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 | 153 | |
| 2020 | 145 | -8 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 15 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.
- 1943 USGS Citronelle quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1946 USGS Citronelle quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Hattiesburg quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Hattiesburg quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Sims Chapel quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Citronelle quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Hattiesburg quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
468 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 468 fires within 5 miles of Sims Chapel between 1994 and 2020, burning about 9,639 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 192 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 |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 192 |
| Debris and open burning | 128 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 107 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 22 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2006 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 7 September 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 4 September 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 138 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | SWR-20150904-001 |
| 30 September 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 2008 | Debris and open burning | 17 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 2003 | Debris and open burning | 27 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | Alabama Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 1995 | Debris and open burning | 65 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 Sims Chapel: 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Was 9 Clay Prospect | Clay | Prospect |
Storms near this place
2 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sims Chapel in 2 storm reports between 1996 and 2019: 1 hail, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2019 | Tornado (EF1) | Sims Chapel | $50,000 | The tornado began near John Johnston Road and continued east, adjacent to Fairford Road. The tornado lifted roughly just south of Price Rivers Road and just east of Fairford Road. The tornado produced tree damage along its path. snapping both softwood and hardwood trees. The most extensive tree damage was noted near the Sims Chapel Holiness Church. An addition to the church was damaged heavily. The addition was an open facing structure which allowed the wind to get inside. A few structures suffered minor damage along the path, due to downed trees. Based on radar data, the start point of the tornado could have occurred west of John Johnston Road, but this is in a remote area where access is limited. |
| December 1996 | Hail | Sims Chapel | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reid Settlement | 3.2 miles | 15 | |
| Chestang | 4.4 miles | 15 | |
| Topton | 4.6 miles | 14 | |
| Fairford | 5.7 miles | 15 | |
| Happy Hill | 5.8 miles | 15 | |
| McIntosh | 7.0 miles | 14 | |
| Seaboard | 7.3 miles | 14 | |
| Dwight | 7.5 miles | 15 |
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 Sims Chapel | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1263446 | 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 155628. 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.






