Blakesburg, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Adams Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52536. The Survey maps it on the Blakesburg quadrangle. 274 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 912 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBlakesburg fell from 296 to 274 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 | 296 | |
| 2020 | 274 | -22 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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 Centerville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Blakesburg quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Blakesburg in 2018, burning about 3 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 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Blakesburg: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drill Hole | Zinc | Past Producer | Sphalerite | |
| Drill Hole | Zinc | Past Producer | Sphalerite |
Storms near this place
18 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blakesburg in 18 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blakesburg | $100,000 | Trained spotter reported that the small town of Blakesburg had a lot of tree damage, including several trees falling on houses. Extent of damage was unknown at the time. Report came via social media. |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blakesburg | $30,000 | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Blakesburg | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Blakesburg | $20,000 | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Blakesburg | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blakesburg | $5,000 | Reported by the Blakesburg fire department. |
| June 2002 | Hail | Blakesburg | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blakesburg | $2,000 | Trained spotter reported 60 to 70 mph wind gusts. Several large trees and 2 to 6 inch diameter tree limbs were down as a result. Report came in via social media. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blakesburg | $2,000 | no account filed |
| June 2023 | Hail | Blakesburg | $1,000 | Trained spotter reported at least quarter sized hail. Also noted flag pole snapped in front yard. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Blakesburg | $1,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Heavy Rain | Blakesburg | - | Report of 3.38 inches of rain. |
| November 2022 | Heavy Rain | Blakesburg | - | A 24 hour rain total of 2.74 inches. |
| September 2022 | Heavy Rain | Blakesburg | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.46 inches. |
| September 2022 | Heavy Rain | Blakesburg | - | A 24 hour rain total of 3.69 inches. |
| June 2021 | Heavy Rain | Blakesburg | - | Mesonet report of 4.02 inches of rain. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blakesburg | - | Blakesburg Fire department reported heavy tree damage in the area with minor damage to homes with soffits torn off. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Blakesburg | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willard | 3.8 miles | 7 | |
| Munterville | 5.1 miles | 7 | |
| Bidwell | 6.4 miles | 7 | |
| Ormanville | 8.8 miles | 10 | |
| Dudley | 8.9 miles | 7 | |
| Chillicothe | 10.2 miles | 7 | |
| Pickwick | 11.9 miles | 9 | |
| Ottumwa Junction | 11.9 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 Blakesburg | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q571091 | 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 454679. 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.




