BlockBefore

Cotter, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1958 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Columbus City Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52738. The Survey maps it on the Cotter quadrangle. 39 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 712 feet above sea level.

Cotter within Louisa County

Population over time

2 figures

Cotter fell from 48 to 39 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.

YearPeople Change
201048
202039-9 (-19%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 7 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

4 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Cotter in 2017, burning about 36 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 burning3
Smoking1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 March 2017Debris and open burning22 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 March 2017Debris and open burning3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
20 March 2017Debris and open burning10 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 February 2017Smoking1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Louisa County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Cotter: 1 producer. All of them 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Columbus Junction Underground MineStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Louisa County

Storms near this place

4 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cotter in 4 storm reports between 2003 and 2020: 2 hail, 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2003HailCotter$250,000no account filed
April 2006Thunderstorm WindCotter$1,000Pine trees snapped off at the base.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindCotter-Widespread straight-line winds that produced damage were reported throughout Louisa County, associated with a derecho. These winds lasted around an hour in total at any one location, even though the initial line of storms moved out quickly. Damaging straight-line winds continued and were associated with the rear inflow jet. Maximum wind speeds were estimated to be around 60 MPH for much of the county. These estimates were determined based off damage reports and photos submitted through social media. The duration of strong winds caused extensive damage to a few trees and crops in their path.
June 2006HailCotter-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Louisa County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Gladwin4.7 miles7
Columbus City5.2 miles7
Hillsboro (historical)5.3 miles7
Lafayette (historical)5.3 miles7
Columbus Junction5.4 miles7
Bethel (historical)5.7 miles7
Fredonia6.5 miles7
Wyman6.9 miles7

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 CotterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1933700The 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 455655. 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.