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Elk Horn, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Clay Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51531. The Survey maps it on the Elk Horn quadrangle. 601 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,345 feet above sea level.

Elk Horn within Shelby County

On record in Elk Horn

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 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Elk Horn fell from 662 to 601 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
2010662
2020601-61 (-9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

12 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Elk Horn between 2010 and 2017, burning about 104 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 burning10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

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
13 August 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resources206 E HWY 44, KIMBALLTON, IOWA
28 April 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
25 March 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
13 March 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 March 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined100 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 March 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 February 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Shelby 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 Elk Horn: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Christenson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Shelby County

Storms near this place

13 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elk Horn in 13 storm reports between 1995 and 2022: 8 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. 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
June 1999Thunderstorm WindElk Horn$400,000Thunderstorm winds blew the roofs off of 5 downtown buildings and felled several large trees. Power lines were also downed and substantial damage to the town's grain elevator was sustained.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindElk Horn$100,000Cement shed, barn, and machine shed destroyed. Another machine shed was also damaged.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindElk Horn$20,000Machine shed destroyed.
April 2022HailElk Horn-Broadcast Media relayed report of 1.75 inch hail.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindElk Horn-Trees and power lines were blown down.
April 2006Funnel CloudElk Horn-A funnel cloud was reported by storm chasers and emergency management near Elk Horn. The funnel apparently never touched down.
June 2015HailElk Horn-no account filed
September 2015HailElk Horn-no account filed
September 2015HailElk Horn-no account filed
May 2005HailElk Horn-no account filed
July 2003HailElk Horn-no account filed
June 1999HailElk Horn-no account filed
July 1995HailElk Horn-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shelby 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
Rorbeck4.9 miles8
Jacksonville6.0 miles8
Poplar6.9 miles8
Red Line9.9 miles8
Fiscus10.3 miles8
Corley14.4 miles8
Kirkman14.4 miles8
Harlan14.7 miles8

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 Elk HornAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1916572The 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 456294. 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.