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Fertile, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Fertile Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50434. It stands on Beaver Creek. The Survey maps it on the Fertile quadrangle. 305 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,171 feet above sea level.

Fertile within Worth County

On record in Fertile

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

Population over time

2 figures

Fertile fell from 370 to 305 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
2010370
2020305-65 (-18%)

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

8 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Fertile between 2009 and 2020, burning about 70 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 burning4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4

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
19 April 2020Debris and open burning15 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
15 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
15 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined8.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
14 April 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresIowa Wetland Management DistrictHANLONTOWN
19 March 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
17 March 2012Debris and open burning5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 November 2014Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 October 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources3770 BLUEBILL AVE, IOWA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Worth County

Mines and quarries near this place

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Fertile: 5 producers, 2 past producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
Fertile Quarry & MillStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Brakke PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Fertile Sand PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Hanlontown PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Kuhn PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
PrestholtSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Worth County

Storms near this place

15 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fertile in 15 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 7 heavy rain, 3 flash flood, 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
July 2013Flash FloodFertile$250,000Parks Street and West Main Street were extremely flooded. Three to four houses were inundated by water along West Washington St. in Fertile.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindFertile$25,000A grain bin was blown over with power lines also downed.
July 2013Flash FloodFertile$10,000Water over 375th St. near Apricot Avenue.
May 2005HailFertile$3,000no account filed
July 1994Tornado (F0)Fertile$500no account filed
June 2025HailFertile-Delayed report of quarter sized hail and strong winds. No significant damage.
June 2024Flash FloodFertile-Emergency manager reported many areas in western Worth county where water scoured gravel roads during the overnight hours.
August 2022Heavy RainFertile-A personal weather station recorded a 24 hour rainfall total of 6.46 inches. 5.76 inches of that fell after midnight and it was raining at the time of this report.
August 2022Heavy RainFertile-A 24 hour rainfall total of 4.64 inches.
August 2021Heavy RainFertile-A 24 hour rainfall of 3.47 inches.
September 2018Heavy RainFertile-Mesonet station recorded heavy rainfall of 3.88 inches over the last 24 hours.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindFertile-County dispatch reported trees down and power outages in town. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar.
June 2016Heavy RainFertile-Mesonet station in Fertile recorded heavy rainfall of 2.44 inches over the last 24 hours.
June 2016Heavy RainFertile-Mesonet station in Fertile reported heavy rainfall of 2.65 inches over the last 24 hours.
July 2013Heavy RainFertile-A spotter measured 3.25 inches of rain from 0700 to 1100.

Every storm recorded in Worth 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
Hanlontown2.4 miles7
Joice7.0 miles7
Bristol10.5 miles7
Somber11.0 miles7
Manly11.6 miles7
Kensett12.6 miles7
Lansrud13.2 miles7
Glade14.7 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 FertileAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q998704The 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 456580. 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.