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Highland Park, Florida

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Lake Wales census division. It lies in ZIP code area 33898. The Survey maps it on the Babson Park quadrangle. 251 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 131 feet above sea level.

Highland Park within Polk County

Then and now

1952 to 1988

The same ground, surveyed 36 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Highland Park, surveyed 1988
Topographic sheet of Highland Park, surveyed 1952

On record in Highland Park

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 within a mile 1 record

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

Population over time

3 figures

Highland Park grew from 244 to 251 between 2000 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
2000244
2010230-14 (-6%)
2020251+21 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 14 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

181 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 181 fires within 5 miles of Highland Park between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,976 acres in total. 12 started naturally. 22 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined34
Equipment and vehicle use33
Railroad operations and maintenance33
Debris and open burning31
Arson/incendiarism22
Natural12
Recreation and ceremony8
Misuse of fire by a minor6
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
5 September 1999Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
3 September 2012Debris and open burning12 acresFlorida Forest ServiceGENESIS (53)
22 September 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceFISHER COMMAND
12 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceBRUSH PALLET
1 September 1999Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
9 August 1993Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
9 August 1993Missing data/not specified/undetermined4.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named
29 August 2002Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Polk County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 13 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Highland Park: 7 producers, 2 prospects, 2 past producers, 2 unknowns. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Diatomite, Clay. 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
Piper Land Clearing, Inc. - Piper MineClayUnknown
Unnamed Diatomite DepositDiatomiteProspect
Unnamed Diatomite ProspectDiatomiteProspect
Independent MineSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Lake Wales Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
No. 2 MineSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Sandland PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Csr Rinker - Lake WalesSandProducer
E.R. Jahna Industries - Independent DiamondSandProducer
Florida Rock Industries - Sandland MineSandProducer

Every working recorded in Polk County

Storms near this place

3 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Highland Park in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2016: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2016Tornado (EF0)Highland Park$5,000Polk County Fire Rescue reported that multiple 911 calls were received of a tornado briefly touching down in the Lake Wales area. A few trees were found knocked over and two power poles were partial damaged, but no structural damage was reported.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindHighland Park$2,500A tree was blown down onto a house in Highland Park.
May 2015HailHighland Park-Polk County Emergency Management relayed a report of quarter sized hail near Crooked Lake Park.

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
Crooked Lake Park2.7 miles14
Lake Wales2.8 miles20
Babson Park3.1 miles14
Hillcrest Heights3.4 miles14
Floritan4.3 miles20
Alcoma4.7 miles15
West Lake Wales4.8 miles17
Hesperides5.6 miles15

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 Highland ParkAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1193965The 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 284008. 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.