Balltown, Iowa
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Jefferson Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52073. The Survey maps it on the Balltown quadrangle. 79 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,204 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBalltown grew from 68 to 79 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 | 68 | |
| 2020 | 79 | +11 (+16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1900 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000
- 1904 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000
- 1908 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1955 USGS Balltown quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Dubuque North quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
1 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Balltown in 2007, burning about 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 March 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Balltown: 8 past producers, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Zinc, Lead, Lead, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Zinc. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fitzpatrick Mine | Zinc, Lead | Unknown | Sphalerite | |
| Fitzpatrick Mine | Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | Galena, Sphalerite | |
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Mattloch Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Schmidt Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Sherrills Mound Mines | Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Dubuque Subdistrict | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | MISSISSIPPI VALLEY-TYPE LEAD-ZINC | |
| Fitzpatrick Mine | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Sherrill Mound Subdistrict | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | MISSISSIPPI VALLEY-TYPE LEAD ZINC |
Storms near this place
6 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balltown in 6 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2008 | Flood | Balltown | $6,400,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balltown | $70,000 | A downburst/microburst occurred on a farm south of Balltown, Iowa. Part of a barn was destroyed and 30 trees on the property were downed. An additional 30 trees were downed in an area of timber just off the property. |
| August 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balltown | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Balltown | $2,000 | Time estimated based on radar. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Balltown | - | Emergency management relayed a report of 92 mph winds from a home weather station. Time estimated from radar data. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Old Balltown | - | A 67 mph wind gust was recorded 3 miles west of Balltown, IA at 610 am CDT July 11. Widespread crop damage was also observed. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Balltown | 0.7 miles | 16 | |
| Cameron | 1.9 miles | 16 | |
| Waupeton | 2.2 miles | 16 | |
| O'Neill | 2.2 miles | 15 | |
| Rickardsville | 3.9 miles | 15 | |
| Cottage Hill | 4.4 miles | 15 | |
| East Rickardsville | 4.5 miles | 16 | |
| Sherrill | 5.0 miles | 16 |
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 Balltown | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1947819 | 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 454338. 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.








