Orchard Hill, Georgia
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1951 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the Orchard Hill census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30224. The Survey maps it on the Orchard Hill quadrangle. 219 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 860 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresOrchard Hill grew from 209 to 219 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 | 209 | |
| 2020 | 219 | +10 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1951 USGS Barnesville quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Atlanta quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Orchard Hill quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1979 USGS Griffin quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
404 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 404 fires within 5 miles of Orchard Hill between 1992 and 2020, burning about 705 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 62 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 | 235 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 62 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 31 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 27 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Smoking | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
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 2003 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 5 September 1995 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.2 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 4 September 1997 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | not named |
| 3 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.8 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2012-LAMAR-003 |
| 28 September 2013 | Smoking | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2014-SPALDING-002 |
| 28 September 2001 | Debris and open burning | 1.6 acres | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2002-SPALDING-002 |
| 26 September 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2002-SPALDING-001 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Orchard Hill: 4 prospects, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Mica, Iron, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walker Property | Iron, Manganese | Prospect | ||
| Coggins Prospect | Mica | Prospect | ||
| Doc Irwin Prospect | Mica | Prospect | ||
| J W Brown Deposit | Mica | Occurrence | ||
| Melton Prospects | Mica | Prospect |
Storms near this place
15 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orchard Hill in 15 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 3 hail, 1 lightning. The reports record 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2005 | Tornado (F1) | Orchard Hill | 2 hurt, $300,000 | A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service concluded that an F1 tornado had touched down in a rural area of southeast Spalding county approximately five miles north of Orchard Hill in the vicinity of Wild Plum and McDonough Roads. The tornado continued north from this location for approximately one mile. The overall tornado path was one mile long and 100 yards wide. One small home was completely destroyed and another nearby brick home under construction suffered major damage. A sport utility vehicle was also damaged at this home when the garage collapsed. Two people in the small home were injured during the tornado. A few other homes nearby sustained minor damage. A number of trees and some power lines were also down in the area. A horse trailer was thrown about 200 yards from its original location. |
| December 2005 | Hail | Orchard Hill | $100,000 | The public reported golf ball-sized hail. |
| April 2019 | Tornado (EF0) | Orchard Hill | $20,000 | A National Weather Service survey determined that an EF0 tornado with maximum wind speeds 75 mph and a maximum path width of 150 yards moved northeast out of Lamar County into southeast Spalding County near Brown Road. The tornado snapped or uprooted a few trees as it crossed Swint Road and Ellis Dairy Road before dissipating west of Barnesville Road and south of Rehoboth Baptism Branch. No injuries were reported. [04/14/19: Tornado #4, County #2/2, EF-0, Spalding, 2019:024]. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | $15,000 | The Spalding County Emergency Manager reported several trees blown down and a small barn destroyed near the intersection of South 6th Street and Runnymede Road. |
| July 2000 | Lightning | Orchard Hill | $5,000 | Amateur radio operators relayed a report of a structural fire caused by lightning. Little information was known about the type or extent of the damage. |
| February 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | $2,000 | Em reports two trees down on the northwest side of orchard hill along county line rd and holly grove rd. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | $1,000 | Tree down at the intersection of futral road and swint rd. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | $1,000 | A tree was blown down on the 1300 block of Barnesville Rd. |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | $1,000 | Tree down at Futral Rd and S Walkers Mill Rd. |
| April 2000 | Tornado (F0) | Orchard Hill | $500 | The storm weakened as it left Lamar county and the tornado lifted shortly after entering the extreme southeast part of Spalding county. The largely rural area sustained very little damage, mainly to trees and tree limbs, but the same converging pattern of debris was noted. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | - | Report of a tree down across East Maddox Rd. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | - | Report of multiple trees down across Swint Rd. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Hill | - | Report of a tree on a house along south McDonough Rd. |
| June 2014 | Hail | Orchard Hill | - | The public reported quarter-sized hail east of Orchard Hill. |
| May 2008 | Hail | Orchard Hill | - | The public observed quarter-sized hail in the Orchard Hill area of far southeastern Spalding 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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Griffin | 4.1 miles | 11 | |
| Griffin | 5.0 miles | 9 | |
| Walker Mill | 6.2 miles | 10 | |
| Experiment | 6.6 miles | 9 | |
| Rover | 6.7 miles | 9 | |
| Highland Mills | 7.4 miles | 9 | |
| Pleasant Grove | 7.4 miles | 10 | |
| Esmond | 8.5 miles | 9 |
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 Orchard Hill | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q644046 | 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 320094. 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.





