Castalia, Iowa
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1906 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Bloomfield Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52133. The Survey maps it on the Castalia quadrangle. 145 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,247 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCastalia fell from 173 to 145 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 | 173 | |
| 2020 | 145 | -28 (-16%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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.
- 1906 USGS Decorah quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1976 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Castalia quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Decorah quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Castalia between 2013 and 2018, burning about 18 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 | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 November 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 October 2014 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
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 Castalia: 3 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castalia Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Livingood Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Schweinefus Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
15 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Castalia in 15 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2009 | Hail | Castalia | $964,000 | Large hail occurred along Highway W42 going into Fayette County. |
| June 2013 | Flash Flood | Castalia | $900,000 | Heavy rain caused flash flooding to occur across Winneshiek County, especially the northern sections. Rapidly rising waters along the Upper Iowa River caused a campground in Bluffton to be evacuated and covered numerous roads in Burr Oak Township stranding residences. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Castalia | $60,000 | Two barns were blown down between Castalia and Ossian. One of these barns was a 114 foot by 283 foot freestall barn under construction. On the same farm, another calf barn was partially destroyed and three cattle sheds were completely destroyed. One cow was killed, 55 acres of corn was sheared off by the wind and 50 acres of alfalfa was destroyed. |
| July 2009 | Hail | Castalia | $50,000 | This was the second round of large hail to fall in five hours, damaging many of the same fields and properties. |
| October 2006 | Hail | Castalia | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Castalia | $50,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Castalia | $23,000 | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Castalia | $10,000 | Golf ball size hail was reported on a family farm along the county line. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Castalia | $3,000 | Several large trees were blown down south of Ossian. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Castalia | $2,000 | Trees were blown down in Castalia. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Castalia | $2,000 | Trees were blown down in Castalia. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Castalia | $750 | no account filed |
| June 2014 | Heavy Rain | Castalia | - | East of Ossian, 4.90 inches of rain fell. |
| July 2009 | Hail | Castalia | - | Penny sized hail fell but there were no winds with the storm. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Castalia | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junction (historical) | 3.1 miles | 11 | |
| Moneek | 4.3 miles | 11 | |
| Ossian | 5.3 miles | 12 | |
| Frankville | 6.2 miles | 11 | |
| Twin Springs | 9.7 miles | 12 | |
| Nordness | 9.9 miles | 12 | |
| Festina | 10.1 miles | 11 | |
| Calmar | 11.1 miles | 12 |
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 Castalia | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1000163 | 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 455206. 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.






