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Walnut Grove, Alabama

22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Altoona census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35952. It stands on Payne Branch. The Survey maps it on the Altoona quadrangle. 773 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 863 feet above sea level.

Walnut Grove within Etowah County

Population over time

2 figures

Walnut Grove grew from 698 to 773 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
2010698
2020773+75 (+11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 22 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

97 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 97 fires within 5 miles of Walnut Grove between 1997 and 2020, burning about 1,100 acres in total. None started naturally. 38 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/incendiarism38
Debris and open burning35
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Equipment and vehicle use6
Smoking2

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 1998Arson/incendiarism35 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
8 September 1998Arson/incendiarism4.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
8 September 1997Arson/incendiarism7.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
6 September 2016Debris and open burning15 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160906-7
6 September 1998Arson/incendiarism3.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
4 September 1998Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
25 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160925-2
23 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160923-4

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Etowah County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 23 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 23 workings within 5 miles of Walnut Grove: 10 past producers, 8 occurrences, 5 prospects. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Manganese, Iron, Nickel, Cobalt, Cobalt. 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
Cook MineManganese, CobaltPast ProducerPsilomelane, Pyrolusite, Wad
No 1 PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
No Name GivenNickel, CobaltOccurrence
Eli Bynum ProspectIronOccurrence
Iron Prospect 5IronProspect
Unnamed ProspectIronOccurrence
Unnamed ProspectIronOccurrence
Unnamed ProspectIronProspect
Unnamed ProspectIronProspect
Unnamed ProspectIronOccurrence

Every working recorded in Etowah County

Storms near this place

19 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Walnut Grove in 19 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 3 injuries. 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 2020Tornado (EF2)Walnut Grove3 hurtNational Weather Service meteorologists surveyed damage in northwest Etowah County, near the Blount County line, and determined that it was consistent with an EF2 tornado, with maximum winds near 115 mph.||This tornado is a continuation from Blount County. It tracked northeast along the ridgeline in northern Etowah County. Sporadic tree damage was noted along Cove Spring Road and Cove Road. The tornado began to strengthen as it moved northeast toward the southern portions of the city of Boaz. Several homes were damaged in this area some from falling trees. At least one home near the intersection of Highway 179 and Glover Road sustained significant structural damage. A large industrial building in this area also sustained significant damage. At this point, the tornado reached its maximum intensity of 115 mph with a width of approximately 350 yards. The tornado continued to track northeast through Boaz with homes and structures damaged along Pleasant Hill Road and Highway 205. Significant tree damage with uprooted and snapped trees were noted in this area. The tornado continued to track northeast and into Marshall County.
May 1994Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$50,000Trees were blown down onto a house in Walnut Grove.
September 2007Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$20,000Thunderstorm winds damaged a chicken farm on Bluff Road, in northeastern Etowah County.
April 2010LightningWalnut Grove$10,000A house fire, with unspecified damages, was caused by a lightning strike in the New Union community.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$6,000A tree was knocked down onto a home.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$4,000Several trees were knocked down in and around Walnut Grove.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$3,000Trees and power lines were blown down in several locations around the Walnut Grove community.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$1,500Several trees were blown down in the Walnut Grove and Mountainboro areas.
April 2009Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove$1,000A tree was blown down on US-278, and an 18-wheeler then drove into it. No injuries were reported.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove-Tree were downed at Cove Spring Rd and Little Cove Rd and on Bristow Cove Rd.
March 2013Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove-Along the northwest shore of Doctor Jenkins Lake, along Murphree Valley Road, approximately four dozen trees were uprooted in a short and narrow swath of wind damage. A mobile home was also overturned in the area.
March 2013Thunderstorm WindWalnut Grove-Trees were reported down on County Road 41 and Walnut Grove Road.
September 2011Flash FloodWalnut Grove-Due to heavy rainfall from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, several roads in and around Walnut Grove were closed due to flood waters.
September 2011FloodWalnut Grove-Due to heavy rainfall from the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, several roads in and around Walnut Grove were closed due to flood waters, and remained closed through Wednesday morning, September 7.
March 2000HailWalnut Grove-Dime size hail was reported in the Clayborn area.
April 2020HailWalnut Grove-no account filed
March 2018HailWalnut Grove-no account filed
March 2018HailWalnut Grove-no account filed
March 2015HailWalnut Grove-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Etowah 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
Phillips (historical)0.6 miles22
Pana1.9 miles22
Redbud2.5 miles22
Altoona2.9 miles22
Hopper3.0 miles22
Schuler (historical)3.4 miles22
Clayborn3.8 miles22
Boxtel3.8 miles22

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 Walnut GroveAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q65928The 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 158099. 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.