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.
Population over time
2 figuresCotter 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 48 | |
| 2020 | 39 | -9 (-19%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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.
- 1958 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Davenport quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Cotter quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Muscatine quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 2017Regional 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 burning | 3 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 March 2017 | Debris and open burning | 22 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 March 2017 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 March 2017 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 February 2017 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Columbus Junction Underground Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2003Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2003 | Hail | Cotter | $250,000 | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cotter | $1,000 | Pine trees snapped off at the base. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cotter | - | 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 2006 | Hail | Cotter | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gladwin | 4.7 miles | 7 | |
| Columbus City | 5.2 miles | 7 | |
| Hillsboro (historical) | 5.3 miles | 7 | |
| Lafayette (historical) | 5.3 miles | 7 | |
| Columbus Junction | 5.4 miles | 7 | |
| Bethel (historical) | 5.7 miles | 7 | |
| Fredonia | 6.5 miles | 7 | |
| Wyman | 6.9 miles | 7 |
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 Cotter | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1933700 | 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 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.




