Fenton, Iowa
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Fenton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50539. The Survey maps it on the Fenton quadrangle. 271 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,240 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresFenton fell from 279 to 271 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 | 279 | |
| 2020 | 271 | -8 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 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.
- 1954 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Fenton quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Estherville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Fenton between 2009 and 2011, burning about 405 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 580TH & 280TH, IA |
| 14 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 401 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 December 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | P-30 & 300TH ST. INTERSECTION. W SIDE OF P-30 BURN |
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 Fenton: 1 unknown. 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
10 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fenton in 10 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 5 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2018 | Flood | Fenton | $100,000 | Flooding was reported in Whittemore with some high stream flows along Hwy 169 near 130th street south of Algona. Flooding continued across portions of southern Kossuth County as well. |
| October 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fenton | $75,000 | High transmission power poles were down along highway 15. |
| June 1994 | Hail | Fenton | $50,000 | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Fenton | $10,000 | no account filed |
| March 2007 | Hail | Fenton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fenton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fenton | $3,000 | no account filed |
| April 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fenton | $2,000 | Power line taken down. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Fenton | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fenton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lone Rock | 5.5 miles | 7 | |
| Lotts Creek | 5.5 miles | 7 | |
| Seneca | 6.0 miles | 7 | |
| Whittemore | 10.9 miles | 7 | |
| Burt | 11.3 miles | 7 | |
| Bancroft | 12.3 miles | 7 | |
| Swea City | 12.9 miles | 7 | |
| Hobarton | 13.0 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 Fenton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1913454 | 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 456571. 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.



