Marathon, Iowa
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Poland Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50565. The Survey maps it on the Albert City quadrangle. 230 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,391 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMarathon fell from 237 to 230 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 | 237 | |
| 2020 | 230 | -7 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 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 Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Fort Dodge quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Albert City quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Humboldt 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 Marathon between 2009 and 2011, burning about 10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 4716 220TH AVE., SEC 33 POLAND TWP, IA |
| 6 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | SEC 12 POLAND TWP, IA |
| 22 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 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 Marathon: 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goldsmith Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Marathon Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
17 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Marathon in 17 storm reports between 1998 and 2023: 11 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2023 | Flash Flood | Marathon | $10,000 | A basement wall collapsed due to heavy rainfall and resultant flooding. Property damage costs are a rough estimate. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Marathon | - | Quarter to ping pong size hail. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Marathon | - | Report received via social media. |
| June 2012 | Hail | Marathon | - | Large hail dented vehicles. The amount of damage was not known. Crop damage was also suspected. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marathon | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees blown down. The winds were accompanied by heavy rain. |
| June 2004 | Tornado (F0) | Marathon | - | A tornado developed inside Buena Vista County about 200 yards south of the county line. The tornado then quickly moved north of the county line. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marathon | - | Thunderstorm winds caused an unknown amount of crop damage. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Marathon | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Marathon | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leverett | 3.1 miles | 8 | |
| Albert City | 5.8 miles | 8 | |
| Sioux Rapids | 9.2 miles | 9 | |
| Rembrandt | 10.1 miles | 9 | |
| Truesdale | 14.0 miles | 9 | |
| Linn Grove | 14.2 miles | 9 | |
| Sulphur Springs | 17.6 miles | 9 | |
| Newell | 17.7 miles | 9 |
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 Marathon | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1929865 | 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 458792. 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.




