BlockBefore

Portia, Arkansas

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1983. It stands in Duty Township. It stands on Eagle Riffle. The Survey maps it on the Black Rock quadrangle. 424 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 259 feet above sea level.

Portia within Lawrence County

On record in Portia

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 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

Portia fell from 437 to 424 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
2010437
2020424-13 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

30 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Portia between 2001 and 2020, burning about 852 acres in total. None started naturally. 8 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 burning11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Arson/incendiarism8
Equipment and vehicle use1

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 August 2012Equipment and vehicle use18 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
27 August 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
24 June 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
21 June 2009Debris and open burning80 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
3 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined45 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
23 April 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
14 April 2004Debris and open burning3.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
5 March 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined180 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lawrence County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Portia: 15 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, Zinc, Limestone, Dimension, 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Toles QuarryLimestone, DimensionProducer
Verkler QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Campbell Zinc Co's Shafts 2 & 3Lead, ZincPast Producer
UnkLead, ZincPast Producer
D F JonesSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Lawrence County

Storms near this place

6 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portia in 6 storm reports between 1998 and 2019: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 flash flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
February 2018Thunderstorm WindPortia$50,000Multiple reports of trees downed across Lawrence County. A couple of barns sustained roof damage.
May 2000Thunderstorm WindPortia$10,000Several trees and power lines were blown down.
March 1998HailPortia$10no account filed
August 2019Thunderstorm WindPortia-Power lines were downed in Portia.
March 2008Flash FloodPortia-Heavy rain produced flash flooding along Highway 63 between Portia and Ravenden. Three feet of water covered the road in spots.
April 2015HailPortia-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lawrence 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
Coffman1.7 miles12
Black Rock2.2 miles12
Powhatan2.7 miles12
Lauratown4.7 miles12
Arbor Grove4.8 miles12
Richwoods4.9 miles12
Hoxie5.5 miles14
Hogan6.0 miles13

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 PortiaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2528422The 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 53704. 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.