Hospers, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Floyd Township. It lies in ZIP code area 51238. It stands on Willow Creek. The Survey maps it on the Hospers quadrangle. 718 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,348 feet above sea level.

Hospers within Sioux County

Population over time

2 figures

Hospers grew from 698 to 718 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	698
2020	718	+20 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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.

1954 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
1964 USGS Hospers quadrangle1:24000
1985 USGS Iowa Great Lakes quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

Mines and quarries near this place

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Hospers: 6 past producers. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Merley	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Sioux-Vandeweerd Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Sioux County

Storms near this place

32 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hospers in 32 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 13 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 7 flood, 2 tornado. 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
November 2005	Tornado (F1)	Hospers	$800,000	A tornado destroyed the wall and part of the roof of a business in Hospers, and caused minor damage to contents in the building.
May 2013	Flood	Hospers	$50,000	Heavy rain caused record flooding on the Floyd River. Significant farmland was flooded and crops were destroyed or deemed to need replanting. Other lowlands along the river were flooded, and several roads were flooded. The basements or lower levels of numerous homes and business were flooded, especially in Alton. The river crested at a record 7.19 feet above flood stage at Alton on May 27th.
October 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	$10,000	no account filed
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	Wind destroyed a hog barn with debris blown across State Highway 60.
June 2025	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	Numerous large tree limbs were downed by thunderstorm wind gusts. Several large empty water tanks were blown into the cemetery.
May 2023	Hail	Hospers	-	Dime to nickel size hail was observed near Hospers.
September 2018	Flash Flood	Hospers	-	Water was inundating 395th St. in Hospers.
October 2015	Tornado (EF0)	Hospers	-	A brief tornado in a field caused little damage.
June 2014	Flood	Hospers	-	Repeated heavy rains caused major flooding in the Alton area. Farmland and some roads were flooded.
May 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including branches blown down. The winds were accompanied by small hail.
July 2012	Hail	Hospers	-	Large hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles and crops.
February 2011	Flood	Hospers	-	Melting snow resulted in runoff which caused minor flooding of the Floyd River. Lowlands along the river including pastureland and some farmland were affected.
March 2010	Flood	Hospers	-	Rapid melting of a heavy winter snowpack caused moderate flooding of the Floyd River. Farmland and other lowlands along the river were affected. The river crested at 4.8 fet above flood stage at Alton on March 15th.
June 2010	Flood	Hospers	-	Repeating heavy rain caused minor to moderate flooding of the Floyd River. Some lowlands including farmland along the river were affected. The river crested at 2.26 feet aboce flood stage at Alton on June 23rd.
August 2010	Flood	Hospers	-	Heavy rain caused moderate to major flooding on the Floyd and West Branch Floyd Rivers, flooding farmland, other lowlands, and some roads. The river both rose and fell rapidly, cresting at 5.84 feet above flood stage at Alton on August 12th.
July 2010	Flood	Hospers	-	Heavy rain in late July caused moderate to major flooding of farmland, other lowlands, and a few roads along the Floyd and West Branch Floyd rivers. The rapidly rising river crested at just short of 6 feet above flood stage at Alton late on July 23rd.
May 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including 6 inch diameter branches blown down.
September 2005	Hail	Hospers	-	Large hail stripped numerous trees and damaged crops. The hail was blown into drifts several inches deep, and some of the drifts lasted over 6 hours after the storm ended. The amount of crop damage was not known.
July 2004	Hail	Hospers	-	Large hail, driven by winds gusting to 45 mph, caused damage to crops. The amount of damage was not known.
June 2010	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
July 2004	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
July 2004	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
July 2003	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
October 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	no account filed
October 2002	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
October 2002	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	no account filed
June 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Hospers	-	no account filed
April 1998	Thunderstorm Wind	Hospers	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Sioux 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Newkirk	3.9 miles	7
Granville	6.2 miles	9
Alton	8.1 miles	10
Middleburg	9.2 miles	7
Orange City	9.3 miles	7
Boyden	9.8 miles	7
Matlock	12.0 miles	7
Carnes	12.8 miles	10

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 Hospers	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1930466	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 457678. 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.

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.