Baxter, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Independence Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50028. The Survey maps it on the Baxter quadrangle. 962 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,004 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBaxter fell from 1,101 to 962 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 | 1,101 | |
| 2020 | 962 | -139 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 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.
- 1954 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1975 USGS Baxter quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 2010Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Baxter between 2010 and 2019, burning about 15 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 August 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 5535 300TH ST., PALO ALTO CO. SW 1/4 OF SECTION 15 |
| 3 April 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 26 March 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
42 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Baxter in 42 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 23 hail, 13 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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 2018 | Flood | Baxter | $100,000 | Flooding continued across portions of Jasper County near the Baxter area and at the Colfax fairgrounds. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $35,000 | HAM operators reported the roof taken off of a house and garage. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $25,000 | no account filed |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $15,000 | Two 18 inch diameter trees and one 30 inch diameter tree was blown down. Rainfall of 1.25 inches in an hour. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Baxter | $15,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Baxter | $10,000 | Largest stone measured 2.25 inches in diameter. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Baxter | $5,000 | Intermitttent track across open country. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Baxter | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Baxter | $5,000 | no account filed |
| September 2013 | Hail | Baxter | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Baxter | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $3,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Baxter | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Baxter | $2,000 | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Baxter | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Baxter | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | $1,000 | Report from a KCCI schoolnet site. |
| March 2011 | Hail | Baxter | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Baxter | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Baxter | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Baxter | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 2024 | Flash Flood | Baxter | - | Considerable flash flooding in Baxter. Water flooding roads and buildings. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Baxter | - | Reported on social media. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Baxter | - | Golf ball sized hail and strong winds. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Baxter | - | Delayed report, submitted via social media. |
| September 2022 | Hail | Baxter | - | Report of corn stripped due to hail. Delayed report. Time estimated via radar. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Baxter | - | The Baxter Fire Department reported quarter sized hail. |
| July 2014 | Tornado (EF0) | Baxter | - | Southeast moving tornado made a wide turn toward the southwest by end of the track. Stayed in rural agricultural fields. |
| May 2008 | Funnel Cloud | Baxter | - | A funnel cloud was reported 1 mile north of Baxter. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | - | Report received from a Schoolnet site. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Baxter | - | no account filed |
| August 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Baxter | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Baxter | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Baxter | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Baxter | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Tornado (F0) | Baxter | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ira | 4.4 miles | 8 | |
| Clyde | 6.1 miles | 8 | |
| Goddard | 7.8 miles | 8 | |
| Green Castle | 8.0 miles | 11 | |
| Mingo | 8.1 miles | 8 | |
| Lambs Grove | 9.3 miles | 8 | |
| Newton | 10.3 miles | 8 | |
| Metz | 11.1 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 Baxter | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1933795 | 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 454391. 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.





