DeSoto, Georgia
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Leslie-De Soto census division. It lies in ZIP code area 31743. The Survey maps it on the Leslie quadrangle. 124 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 308 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresDeSoto fell from 214 to 124 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 | 214 | |
| 2010 | 195 | -19 (-9%) |
| 2020 | 124 | -71 (-36%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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.
- 1953 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Dothan quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Leslie quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1973 USGS Leslie quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Albany quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
143 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 143 fires within 5 miles of DeSoto between 1992 and 2020, burning about 719 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 11 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 | 88 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 11 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
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 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1.6 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2011-SUMTER-011 |
| 6 September 2019 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2020SUMTER012 |
| 5 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2013-SUMTER-016 |
| 5 September 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | 18 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 2002 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2003-SUMTER-008 |
| 24 September 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 23 September 1996 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 20 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.2 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
6 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names DeSoto in 6 storm reports between 1998 and 2008: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 hail. The reports record 22 injuries. 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 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Desoto | 12 hurt, $200,000 | Low topped convection caused an apparent tornado in the Railroad Street area of DeSoto. Newspaper reports and sight survey by an NWS employee indicated at least 1 permanent structure home and 7 mobile homes were destroyed. Other homes were damaged by some of the hundreds of trees that fell. Several businesses were also damaged. |
| September 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Desoto | 10 hurt, $200,000 | Sight survey by an NWS employee and a newspaper report indicated a permanent structure home and several mobile or modular homes were destroyed in the Ferguson Road area. Debris was scattered several hundred feet. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Desoto | $3,000 | The Sumter county 911 center reported that trees and power lines were down in Americus and trees were down in both Leslie and Desoto. |
| February 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Desoto | $2,000 | The Americus Times Recorder reported that numerous trees and power lines were down in the eastern part of the county across DeSoto Seed Farm Road, Foster Ball Road, and at the intersection of Georgia Highways 27 and 195. |
| August 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Desoto | $500 | Sumter county 911 reported several trees blown down. |
| August 2002 | Hail | Desoto | - | The Sumter county 911 center reported dime to nickel size hail in Americus, Desoto, and Leslie. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leslie | 1.3 miles | 9 | |
| Parkers (historical) | 3.1 miles | 9 | |
| Cobb | 3.9 miles | 8 | |
| Lamar | 4.2 miles | 8 | |
| Huntington | 5.3 miles | 8 | |
| Flintside | 5.7 miles | 8 | |
| Corinth (historical) | 6.9 miles | 8 | |
| Gatewood | 7.6 miles | 8 |
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 DeSoto | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2526831 | 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 355464. 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.
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.





