Wickes, Arkansas
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1913 and the latest in 1986. It stands in White Township. It lies in ZIP code area 71973. The Survey maps it on the Wickes quadrangle. 637 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,030 feet above sea level.
On record in Wickes
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
- Wickes Schoollisted 2024
Population over time
2 figuresWickes fell from 754 to 637 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 | 754 | |
| 2020 | 637 | -117 (-16%) |
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.
- 1913 USGS De Queen quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1950 USGS Mcalester quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Cove quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Mc Alester quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS McAlester quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Mc Alester quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS McAlester quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Wickes quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS De Queen quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
78 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 78 fires within 5 miles of Wickes between 1997 and 2019, burning about 915 acres in total. 6 started naturally. 36 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 | 36 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 19 |
| Debris and open burning | 14 |
| Natural | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 1998 | Natural | 3.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 22 September 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 7.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 21 September 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 19 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 20 September 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 6.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 12 September 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 1 September 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
| 8 August 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Arkansas Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Wickes: 1 past producer, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Silica, Manganese. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hablitzel | Manganese | Prospect | ||
| Little Missouri | Silica | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
33 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wickes in 33 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 19 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 4 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2013 | Tornado (EF1) | Wickes | $75,000 | An EF1 tornado caused a mobile home and a horse trailer to be crushed by falling trees. Shingles were blown off a house. The metal roof was blown off a shed. Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off. |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | $60,000 | A tree was blown down onto a house. Numerous county roads were blocked by fallen trees. |
| July 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | $25,000 | U.S. 278 was blocked by numerous fallen trees. |
| April 2011 | Tornado (EF1) | Wickes | $20,000 | A house had its porch and part of its roof blown off. Much of the roof was blown off a mobile home. Trees were blown down. |
| August 2010 | Lightning | Wickes | $10,000 | Lightning set fire to a transformer. |
| November 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | $5,000 | An awning was blown off the front of a grocery store. |
| April 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | $3,000 | The Emergency Manager reported utility poles broken. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | $1,000 | A tree was down on U.S. Highway 71. |
| September 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | $1,000 | Large tree limbs were down along U.S. Highway 71 south of Wickes. |
| November 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Multiple trees and powerlines were blown down in Wickes. |
| November 2022 | Tornado (EF1) | Wickes | - | This brief tornado developed along a strong rear flank downdraft surge that swept across areas immediately southeast of Wickes. Several chicken houses sustained varying degrees of damage, from roof panels stripped off most structures, to walls collapsed on at least one structure. Surrounding tree damage west of the track suggested strong inflow into the tornado while tree damage east of the track was consistent with non-tornadic damaging winds. Start and end locations/times were approximated due to limited accessibility. |
| June 2019 | Hail | Wickes | - | Golf ball size hail was reported in Wickes. |
| July 2019 | Flash Flood | Wickes | - | Highway 59 near Wickes was underwater. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Several trees were blown down across southern Polk County. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Several trees were blown down onto several county roads across the county. |
| March 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Wickes | - | A funnel cloud was seen on Polk County Road 13 east of Wickes. |
| April 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Trees were blown down around Wickes. |
| September 2006 | Tornado (F1) | Wickes | - | A weak tornado was spawned in southern Polk County. The tornado tracked from 2.8 miles northwest of Wickes to 2 miles north of Wickes. The tornado downed or snapped dozens of trees, with two houses damaged and a parked automobile crushed by fallen trees. Two storage buildings were also overturned. |
| November 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Trees down. |
| October 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees. |
| September 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | Several large trees were blown down by thunderstorm winds at Wickes. |
| April 2016 | Hail | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| February 2013 | Hail | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| September 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| January 1999 | Hail | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| April 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| November 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wickes | - | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Wickes | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatton | 4.2 miles | 16 | |
| Grannis | 4.3 miles | 15 | |
| Bog Springs | 5.1 miles | 16 | |
| Vandervoort | 5.6 miles | 16 | |
| Roff (historical) | 5.9 miles | 16 | |
| Bethel Chapel | 6.2 miles | 16 | |
| Holly Grove | 6.3 miles | 15 | |
| McCauley | 8.7 miles | 16 |
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 Wickes | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2793161 | 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 78771. 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.








