Alton, Iowa
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Nassau Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51003. The Survey maps it on the Alton quadrangle. 1,248 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,325 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlton grew from 1,216 to 1,248 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 | 1,216 | |
| 2020 | 1,248 | +32 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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 Sioux City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Sioux City quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Le Mars quadrangle1:62500
- 1985 USGS Alton quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Sioux City North quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Alton in 2018, burning about 22 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 22 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 21 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 21 workings within 5 miles of Alton: 19 past producers, 1 unknown, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Cambrier | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Floyd Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| N Bloemendaal | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| North Alton Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Old County Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Ruppert Bros | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Sioux-Vandeweerd Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
23 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alton in 23 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 13 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 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 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | $20,000 | Thunderstorm winds damaged trees and power lines, and blew down a grain bin and cattle shed. The peak gust was measured by Iowa RWIS equipment. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | On the east side of town, an enclosed trailer was flipped on its side by thunderstorm wind gusts. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | Significant building damage occurred at the lumber yard in Alton. |
| July 2025 | Flash Flood | Alton | - | Runoff from heavy rainfall caused the Floyd River at Alton to rise 5 feet in less than 3 hours, resulting in a brief period over flood stage. |
| May 2017 | Tornado (EF0) | Alton | - | A brief touchdown. |
| October 2015 | Tornado (EF0) | Alton | - | A brief tornado caused no reported damage. |
| August 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | Thunderstorm winds caused an unknown amount of tree damage. |
| July 2012 | Hail | Alton | - | Large hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles and crops. |
| May 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | Thunderstorm winds uprooted a large tree. |
| June 2008 | Flood | Alton | - | Heavy rain caused minor flooding of farmland along the Floyd River. |
| August 2018 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| July 2012 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| April 2010 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Alton | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orange City | 2.9 miles | 7 | |
| Carnes | 4.8 miles | 10 | |
| Newkirk | 5.9 miles | 7 | |
| Granville | 7.3 miles | 9 | |
| Hospers | 8.1 miles | 7 | |
| Maurice | 9.1 miles | 10 | |
| Middleburg | 9.2 miles | 7 | |
| Sioux Center | 10.8 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 Alton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1947745 | 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 454157. 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.





