Natural Dam, Arkansas
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1978. It stands in District 1. It lies in ZIP code area 72948. It stands on Mountain Fork. The Survey maps it on the Natural Dam quadrangle. It stands 663 feet above sea level.
On record in Natural Dam
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 2 records
Lee Creek Bridgelisted 1990- Wing Schoollisted 2023
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1898 USGS Winslow quadrangle1:125000
- 1898 USGS Winslow #3 quadrangle1:62500
- 1901 USGS Winslow quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1946 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Natural Dam quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1978 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Stilwell quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
164 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 164 fires within 5 miles of Natural Dam between 1992 and 2020, burning about 5,965 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 103 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 | 103 |
| Debris and open burning | 25 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 30 September 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | Ozark-St. Francis National Forests | SHILOH RD. |
| 3 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 28 September 2003 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Ozark-St. Francis National Forests | SHILOH |
| 10 September 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 7 August 2012 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 31 August 2010 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 31 August 2010 | Debris and open burning | 226 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | 30462 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
38 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Natural Dam in 38 storm reports between 1993 and 2017: 17 thunderstorm wind, 16 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Natural Dam | $75,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Natural Dam | $25,000 | no account filed |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | $10,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down a tree onto a house. |
| April 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | $5,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down power lines, and damaged buildings. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | $5,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down the steeple of a local church. Numerous large tree limbs were also blown down by the wind. |
| May 1999 | Tornado (F3) | Natural Dam | $3,000 | A significant long-track tornado first developed 4 miles west of Short, OK, moving northeast to about 7 miles southwest of Fayetteville, AR. This tornado reached its peak strength as an F3 tornado as it clipped extreme southeast Adair County, OK. This tornado then clipped extreme northwest Crawford County, passing through an unpopulated, forested area in the Ozark National Forest. An aerial survey by NWS personnel just west of the Oklahoma/Arkansas state line west of Natural Dam revealed that every tree in a hardwood forest was completely leveled. Property damage listed with this entry reflects tree damage sustained in Crawford County, while the F-rating reflects the tornado's peak strength in Adair County, OK. |
| May 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | $1,000 | Numerous trees were blown down. |
| May 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | $500 | A church sign was blown down. |
| April 2017 | Flash Flood | Natural Dam | - | Natural Dam Road was closed due to flooding. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down a tree. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Several trees were blown down by strong thunderstorm winds, partially blocking Highway 59. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down large tree limbs, blocking the roadway north of Natural Dam. |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down large tree limbs. |
| August 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down a few large tree limbs and one dead tree. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts to 60 mph were estimated by emergency management personnel. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down large tree limbs. |
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Strong thunderstorm wind blew down several trees just southeast of the Davidson community, along Highway 59. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 70 miles an hour blew down a few large trees. The trees blocked Highway 59. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 miles an hour blew down large tree limbs. |
| February 2008 | Flash Flood | Natural Dam | - | Runoff from locally heavy rainfall resulted in flooding of roads in Mountainburg and Van Buren. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 70 miles an hour blew down several trees. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Natural Dam | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 60 miles an hour blew down large tree limbs. |
| April 2011 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| February 2009 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| January 2006 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| February 2005 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| November 2005 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| February 1998 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Flash Flood | Natural Dam | - | no account filed |
| April 1993 | Hail | Natural Dam | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lee Creek | 3.3 miles | 16 | |
| Barcelona | 3.8 miles | 16 | |
| Uniontown | 5.1 miles | 16 | |
| Davidson | 5.6 miles | 16 | |
| Cedarville | 5.6 miles | 17 | |
| Rosedale (historical) | 6.9 miles | 16 | |
| Hobbtown | 7.1 miles | 17 | |
| Stop (historical) | 7.2 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 Natural Dam | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6980473 | 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 72836. 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.
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.








