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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.

Wickes within Polk County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Wickes 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.

YearPeople Change
2010754
2020637-117 (-16%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 16 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

78 since 1997

Regional 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/incendiarism36
Missing data/not specified/undetermined19
Debris and open burning14
Natural6
Recreation and ceremony2
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 September 1998Natural3.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
5 September 2015Debris and open burning2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
22 September 1999Arson/incendiarism7.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
21 September 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined19 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2000Arson/incendiarism6.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
12 September 2010Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
1 September 2002Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named
8 August 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresArkansas Forestry Commissionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Polk County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
HablitzelManganeseProspect
Little MissouriSilicaPast Producer

Every working recorded in Polk County

Storms near this place

33 since 1994

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2013Tornado (EF1)Wickes$75,000An 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 2011Thunderstorm WindWickes$60,000A tree was blown down onto a house. Numerous county roads were blocked by fallen trees.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindWickes$25,000U.S. 278 was blocked by numerous fallen trees.
April 2011Tornado (EF1)Wickes$20,000A 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 2010LightningWickes$10,000Lightning set fire to a transformer.
November 1994Thunderstorm WindWickes$5,000An awning was blown off the front of a grocery store.
April 2016Thunderstorm WindWickes$3,000The Emergency Manager reported utility poles broken.
July 2009Thunderstorm WindWickes$1,000A tree was down on U.S. Highway 71.
September 2009Thunderstorm WindWickes$1,000Large tree limbs were down along U.S. Highway 71 south of Wickes.
November 2022Thunderstorm WindWickes-Multiple trees and powerlines were blown down in Wickes.
November 2022Tornado (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 2019HailWickes-Golf ball size hail was reported in Wickes.
July 2019Flash FloodWickes-Highway 59 near Wickes was underwater.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindWickes-Several trees were blown down across southern Polk County.
May 2015Thunderstorm WindWickes-Several trees were blown down onto several county roads across the county.
March 2009Funnel CloudWickes-A funnel cloud was seen on Polk County Road 13 east of Wickes.
April 2007Thunderstorm WindWickes-Trees were blown down around Wickes.
September 2006Tornado (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 2005Thunderstorm WindWickes-Trees down.
October 2002Thunderstorm WindWickes-Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees.
September 2001Thunderstorm WindWickes-Several large trees were blown down by thunderstorm winds at Wickes.
April 2016HailWickes-no account filed
February 2013HailWickes-no account filed
August 2006HailWickes-no account filed
August 2001HailWickes-no account filed
September 2000Thunderstorm WindWickes-no account filed
August 2000Thunderstorm WindWickes-no account filed
June 1999Thunderstorm WindWickes-no account filed
June 1999Thunderstorm WindWickes-no account filed
January 1999HailWickes-no account filed
April 1999Thunderstorm WindWickes-no account filed
November 1998Thunderstorm WindWickes-no account filed
April 1996HailWickes-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Polk 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
Hatton4.2 miles16
Grannis4.3 miles15
Bog Springs5.1 miles16
Vandervoort5.6 miles16
Roff (historical)5.9 miles16
Bethel Chapel6.2 miles16
Holly Grove6.3 miles15
McCauley8.7 miles16

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 WickesAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2793161The 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.