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.
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
Rhodes Milllisted 1978
Population over time
2 figuresFertile 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 370 | |
| 2020 | 305 | -65 (-18%) |
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.
- 1954 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Fertile quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
8 since 2009Regional 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 burning | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 April 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Iowa Wetland Management District | HANLONTOWN |
| 19 March 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 March 2012 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 November 2014 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 October 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 3770 BLUEBILL AVE, IOWA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
7 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fertile Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Brakke Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Fertile Sand Plant | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Hanlontown Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Kuhn Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Prestholt | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
15 since 1994Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2013 | Flash Flood | Fertile | $250,000 | Parks Street and West Main Street were extremely flooded. Three to four houses were inundated by water along West Washington St. in Fertile. |
| April 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fertile | $25,000 | A grain bin was blown over with power lines also downed. |
| July 2013 | Flash Flood | Fertile | $10,000 | Water over 375th St. near Apricot Avenue. |
| May 2005 | Hail | Fertile | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 1994 | Tornado (F0) | Fertile | $500 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Hail | Fertile | - | Delayed report of quarter sized hail and strong winds. No significant damage. |
| June 2024 | Flash Flood | Fertile | - | Emergency manager reported many areas in western Worth county where water scoured gravel roads during the overnight hours. |
| August 2022 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | 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 2022 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | A 24 hour rainfall total of 4.64 inches. |
| August 2021 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | A 24 hour rainfall of 3.47 inches. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | Mesonet station recorded heavy rainfall of 3.88 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fertile | - | County dispatch reported trees down and power outages in town. This is a delayed report and time estimated from radar. |
| June 2016 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | Mesonet station in Fertile recorded heavy rainfall of 2.44 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| June 2016 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | Mesonet station in Fertile reported heavy rainfall of 2.65 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| July 2013 | Heavy Rain | Fertile | - | A spotter measured 3.25 inches of rain from 0700 to 1100. |
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.
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 Fertile | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q998704 | 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 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.




