Leighton, Iowa
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1910 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Black Oak Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50143. The Survey maps it on the Leighton quadrangle. 158 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 774 feet above sea level.
On record in Leighton
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
Vander Wilt Farmstead Historic Districtlisted 2004
Population over time
2 figuresLeighton fell from 162 to 158 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 | 162 | |
| 2020 | 158 | -4 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 11 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.
- 1910 USGS Pella quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1912 USGS Pella quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Leighton quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Oskaloosa quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
8 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Leighton between 2013 and 2017, burning about 221 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 | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 April 2013 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 13 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 140 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 February 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 February 2017 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Leighton: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Zinc, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Occurrence | Zinc | Past Producer | Sphalerite | |
| South River Limestone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
12 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Leighton in 12 storm reports between 1996 and 2020: 7 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Leighton | $25,000 | Street flooding was reported in Barns City with cars stalled out in water. |
| July 2006 | Hail | Leighton | $10,000 | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Leighton | $5,000 | Reported by a KCCI television viewer. |
| July 2006 | Hail | Leighton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Leighton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Tornado (F1) | Leighton | $2,000 | Moved from Marion County into rural Mahaska County. |
| May 1996 | Hail | Leighton | $2,000 | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Leighton | $1,000 | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Leighton | $500 | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Leighton | - | A mesonet station reported a wind gust of 65 knots. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Leighton | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Leighton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olivet | 2.8 miles | 11 | |
| Evans | 4.0 miles | 7 | |
| Bernina (historical) | 5.0 miles | 11 | |
| Bellefountain | 5.6 miles | 11 | |
| Bolton (historical) | 6.1 miles | 7 | |
| Beacon | 7.1 miles | 7 | |
| Oskaloosa | 8.1 miles | 7 | |
| Peoria | 8.6 miles | 11 |
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 Leighton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1928512 | 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 458280. 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.







