Willow Oak, Florida
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Bartow census division. It lies in ZIP code area 33860. The Survey maps it on the Nichols quadrangle. 6,806 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 112 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1955 to 1988The same ground, surveyed 33 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
3 figuresWillow Oak grew from 4,917 to 6,806 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 4,917 | |
| 2010 | 6,732 | +1,815 (+37%) |
| 2020 | 6,806 | +74 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 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.
- 1955 USGS Nichols quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1972 USGS Tampa quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS St Petersburg quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS St Petersburg quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
265 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 265 fires within 5 miles of Willow Oak between 1992 and 2020, burning about 9,051 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 84 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 44 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 31 |
| Debris and open burning | 29 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 25 |
| Natural | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 14 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | 50 acres | Florida Forest Service | DREAM OAK (53) |
| 18 September 2019 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | SEABOARD (53) |
| 18 September 1997 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.3 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 16 September 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 1 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 20 August 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | 29 FIFTY CENT FIRE |
| 19 August 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 16 August 1996 | Natural | 4.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 14 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Willow Oak: 7 plants, 3 past producers, 2 unknowns, 2 prospects. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Phosphorus-Phosphates, Uranium, Iron, Magnesite, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Iron, Magnesite, Uranium, Water, Free, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Iron, Magnesite, Uranium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Wheels, Inc. - Wellman-Lord Trust Mine | Sand | Unknown | ||
| Mulberry Limestone Drying Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Plant | ||
| Nichols Mine | Phosphorus-Phosphates, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Iron, Magnesite, Uranium | Past Producer | 1915, 1970 | |
| Cristina Reserve | Phosphorus-Phosphates, Uranium, Iron, Magnesite, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite | Prospect | 1935 | |
| Debris Deposits | Phosphorus-Phosphates, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Iron, Magnesite, Uranium, Water, Free | Prospect | 1974 | |
| Mulberry | Phosphorus-Phosphates, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite, Iron, Magnesite, Uranium, Water, Free | Past Producer | ||
| Polk County Mine | Phosphorus-Phosphates, Uranium, Iron, Magnesite, Aluminum, Fluorine-Fluorite | Past Producer | 1974, 1976 | |
| Mulberry Gulf-Atlantic | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Plant | ||
| Mulberry Phosphoric Acid Plant | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Unknown | 1968 | |
| New Wales Imc | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Plant |
Storms near this place
2 since 2014Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Willow Oak in 2 storm reports between 2014 and 2016: 1 heavy rain, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2014 | Heavy Rain | Willow Oak | $10,000 | Polk County Department of Emergency Management reported that two units of an apartment building in Mulberry had water entering the structure, with as much as six inches of water covering the floor. |
| September 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow Oak | - | A mesonet station near Mulberry measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 52 knots. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fuller Heights | 1.1 miles | 17 | |
| Prairie Junction | 1.8 miles | 17 | |
| Nichols | 1.9 miles | 12 | |
| Mulberry | 2.8 miles | 17 | |
| South Mulberry | 3.1 miles | 17 | |
| East Mulberry | 3.2 miles | 17 | |
| Kingsford | 3.4 miles | 17 | |
| Tancrede | 3.7 miles | 17 |
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 Willow Oak | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2422054 | 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 301424. 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.






