Clayton, Iowa
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Clayton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52049. The Survey maps it on the Clayton quadrangle. 45 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 636 feet above sea level.
On record in Clayton
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Clayton Schoollisted 1974
Population over time
2 figuresClayton grew from 43 to 45 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 | 43 | |
| 2020 | 45 | +2 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 14 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.
- 1902 USGS Elkader quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Clayton quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Oelwein quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
17 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Clayton between 2000 and 2020, burning about 112 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were 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 | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | DRY HOLLOW FIRE |
| 3 May 2020 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 May 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Great Lakes Agency | POPPLETOWN FUZZ 3 |
| 7 April 2005 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 24 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 24 April 2003 | Smoking | 12 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | 60 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 April 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 11 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 11 workings within 5 miles of Clayton: 6 past producers, 3 producers, 2 unknowns. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Lead, Sand and Gravel, Industrial/Frac Sand, Silica. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pattison Sand Co. | Sand and Gravel, Industrial/Frac Sand, Silica | Producer | Sand | |
| Quarry | Lead | Past Producer | Galena | |
| Sny Magill Mines | Lead | Past Producer | Galena | |
| Blume Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Clark Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Dallas Cohen Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Mueller Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Sny Magill Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown |
Storms near this place
6 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Clayton in 6 storm reports between 1996 and 2017: 3 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2017 | Flash Flood | Clayton | $950,000 | After heavy rains of 4 to 8 inches, flash flooding occurred across the southern half of Clayton County. Flooding along Roberts and Dry Mill Creeks washed out County Road C1X east of Elkader. Numerous other roads were closed across the county due to inundation, rock slides and mud slides with the hardest hit part of the county between Garber and Guttenberg. Near Guttenberg, the residents of three homes had to be rescued from flood waters on Miners Creek. The flooding heavily damaged a bridge over Miners Creek, took out a 30 foot retaining wall, damaged the inventory of two business and undercut railroad tracks. |
| July 2016 | Flash Flood | Clayton | $200,000 | Locally heavy rain pushed a branch of the Sny Magill Creek out of its banks. The flooding caused the Paradise Valley Campground to be evacuated. The campground was extensively damaged, with picnic tables destroyed, gazebos washed away, a small building moved several feet, roads damaged and there was two feet of standing water in the office building. |
| August 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Clayton | $3,000 | Large trees were blown down south of Clayton. |
| April 1996 | Hail | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Clayton | - | no account filed |
| April 1996 | Hail | Clayton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eckards | 4.0 miles | 13 | |
| Garnavillo | 5.3 miles | 12 | |
| Ceres | 6.1 miles | 12 | |
| McGregor | 8.1 miles | 20 | |
| National | 8.2 miles | 12 | |
| Guttenberg | 8.5 miles | 13 | |
| McGregor Heights | 9.1 miles | 20 | |
| Clayton Center | 9.6 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 Clayton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q934783 | 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 455448. 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.






