BlockBefore

Cave City, Arkansas

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1890 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Cave Township. It lies in ZIP code area 72521. The Survey maps it on the Cave City quadrangle. 1,922 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 676 feet above sea level.

Cave City within Sharp County

On record in Cave City

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Cave City grew from 1,904 to 1,922 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
20101,904
20201,922+18 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 19 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

123 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 123 fires within 5 miles of Cave City between 1998 and 2020, burning about 2,022 acres in total. 2 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
Debris and open burning38
Arson/incendiarism38
Missing data/not specified/undetermined36
Equipment and vehicle use4
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Natural2
Recreation and ceremony2
Smoking1

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
3 September 1998Smoking1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
26 September 2004Recreation and ceremony5.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
21 September 2000Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
19 September 2000Arson/incendiarism4.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
18 September 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
17 September 2000Arson/incendiarism12 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
17 September 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
17 September 2000Equipment and vehicle use2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sharp County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 11 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Cave City: 5 past producers, 3 occurrences, 3 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Manganese, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Phosphorus-Phosphates. 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
Hickory ValleyPhosphorus-PhosphatesUnknown
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Ball MineManganesePast Producer1918
E.W.Roach ProspectManganesePast Producer
Jackson ProspectManganeseOccurrence
K D Aldridge ProspectManganesePast Producer1917
Matlock MineManganesePast Producer1918
Maxfield ProspectManganeseOccurrence
Story MineManganesePast Producer1918

Every working recorded in Sharp County

Storms near this place

41 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cave City in 41 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 17 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 5 flash flood, 3 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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 1999Tornado (F2)Cave City1 hurtno account filed
September 1993Thunderstorm WindCave City$500,000Thunderstorm winds blew the roof off two buildings and knocked down some trees and power lines.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindCave City$75,000Trees and power lines were blown down, with one of the trees falling on a pickup truck. Shingles were blown off roofs. Signs at businesses were destroyed.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindCave City$15,000A house was damaged and power lines were blown down.
March 1997Tornado (F1)Cave City$3,000no account filed
September 2010Flash FloodCave City$2,000Water covered U.S. Highway 167 and some city streets in Cave City.
August 2009LightningCave City$1,500Lightning killed one cow and two steers on a farm.
April 2025Flash FloodCave City-Blackstone Drive in Cave City had water rushing over it.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindCave City-Multiple power poles were blown down in Cave City.
April 2022Flash FloodCave City-Flooding was reported in the high school, along with portions of U.S. Hwy. 167.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindCave City-Several trees were blown down in Cave City.
May 2020HailCave City-A COOP observer reported quarter size hail in Cave City.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindCave City-Several trees were downed.
February 2019Flash FloodCave City-Water was running over numerous city and county roads.
June 2013Heavy RainCave City-One-half inch of rain fell in 10 minutes.
August 2007HailCave City-Hail up to the size of quarters fell.
April 2002Thunderstorm WindCave City-Thunderstorm winds blew down some large tree limbs.
April 2001Thunderstorm WindCave City-Thunderstorm winds knocked the tops out of trees.
July 2000Tornado (F0)Cave City-A weak tornado was spawned in southern Sharp County , or from 3 to miles 4 miles east of Cave City close to Highway 230. One house sustained significant roof damage, with minor roof damage to three other houses. Two small farm sheds were destroyed, and a chicken house suffered some foundation damage and lost some of its tin roof. Several trees were also blown down.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindCave City-Thunderstorm winds downed some trees.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindCave City-Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees.
April 2018HailCave City-no account filed
May 2017HailCave City-no account filed
September 2011HailCave City-no account filed
May 2011HailCave City-no account filed
May 2011HailCave City-no account filed
May 2011HailCave City-no account filed
April 2009HailCave City-no account filed
May 2008HailCave City-no account filed
July 2003HailCave City-no account filed
May 2003HailCave City-no account filed
April 2002HailCave City-no account filed
October 2001Thunderstorm WindCave City-no account filed
January 2000Flash FloodCave City-no account filed
May 1999HailCave City-no account filed
May 1999HailCave City-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindCave City-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindCave City-no account filed
July 1996HailCave City-no account filed
April 1996Thunderstorm WindCave City-no account filed
June 1994HailCave City-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sharp 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
Maxville3.7 miles19
Amateur (historical)5.2 miles8
Aetna5.8 miles11
Mobley (historical)6.0 miles11
Balboa (historical)6.8 miles8
Sidney7.3 miles8
Shelbyville8.0 miles11
Simco (historical)8.8 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 Cave CityAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q79330The 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 76551. 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.