Alto, Georgia
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Baldwin census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30510. The Survey maps it on the Baldwin quadrangle. 970 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,399 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlto fell from 1,172 to 970 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 | 1,172 | |
| 2020 | 970 | -202 (-17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 14 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.
- 1891 USGS Gainesville quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1954 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Baldwin quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1979 USGS Commerce quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
221 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 221 fires within 5 miles of Alto between 1992 and 2020, burning about 407 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 37 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 burning | 134 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 37 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 13 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
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 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2017-BANKS-001 |
| 7 September 1996 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 4 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 1993 | Debris and open burning | 2.2 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 27 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | JUNKYARD |
| 26 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 15 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2011-BANKS-001 |
| 14 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1.7 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2011-HALL-005 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Alto: 2 prospects, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crow (L.W. Bowen) Mine | Gold | Prospect | Placer, Some Vein Prospecting Also | |
| Crow Heirs Mine | Gold | Past Producer | Stream Placer | |
| J. Loudermilk (J. Perkins) | Gold | Prospect | Placer, Some Vein Prospecting Also |
Storms near this place
10 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alto in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2021: 6 thunderstorm wind, 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2014 | Hail | Alto | $238,000 | The public reported golf ball sized hail along Yona Homer Road. |
| October 2020 | Flash Flood | Alto | $30,000 | The Emergency Manager reported flooding issues in the county including: Purvis Road washed out, Apple Valley Road home flooded, a bridge closed on Westmoreland, and the closure of Moss Farm Road. Radar estimates indicate that 3 to 6 inches of rain occurred in the area, resulting in the flash flooding. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | $10,000 | Multiple reports of trees down around the county, specifically along Apple Pie Ridge Road, historic Homer Highway, Carson Segars Road, and McDonald Circle. Time estimated from radar. |
| May 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | $5,000 | The Banks County Emergency Manager reported part of the roof of a mobile home blown off and several trees blown down off of Garland White Road. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | $5,000 | Several trees and power lines were knocked down in and around Alto and Lula, as well as countywide. |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | $500 | The Banks county 911 center reported that two to three trees were blown down in Alto. Pea size hail was also reported. |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | $250 | The Banks County Emergency Manager reported a tree down on Apple Pie Ridge Road. |
| April 2012 | Hail | Alto | - | The Lee Arrendale Correctional Center reported quarter sized hail in the area. Additional reports of quarter sized hail were received from the public south of Baldwin. |
| April 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | - | The public reported a measured 60 MPH wind gust two miles south of Baldwin. |
| February 1998 | Hail | Alto | - | The public reported dime size hail covering the ground. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woffords Settlement (historical) | 3.9 miles | 14 | |
| Hollingsworth | 4.0 miles | 14 | |
| Nancytown (historical) | 4.7 miles | 14 | |
| Pruitt | 7.7 miles | 14 | |
| Pinefield Crossroads | 7.7 miles | 14 | |
| Uvena | 8.5 miles | 14 | |
| Mount Pleasant | 9.8 miles | 14 | |
| Homer | 10.0 miles | 14 |
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 Alto | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1843926 | 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 354298. 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.




