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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.

Marathon within Buena Vista County

Population over time

2 figures

Marathon 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.

YearPeople Change
2010237
2020230-7 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

3 since 2009

Regional 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/undetermined3

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
6 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resources4716 220TH AVE., SEC 33 POLAND TWP, IA
6 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural ResourcesSEC 12 POLAND TWP, IA
22 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Buena Vista County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Goldsmith PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Marathon PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Buena Vista County

Storms near this place

17 since 1998

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2023Flash FloodMarathon$10,000A basement wall collapsed due to heavy rainfall and resultant flooding. Property damage costs are a rough estimate.
May 2018HailMarathon-Quarter to ping pong size hail.
May 2018HailMarathon-Report received via social media.
June 2012HailMarathon-Large hail dented vehicles. The amount of damage was not known. Crop damage was also suspected.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindMarathon-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees blown down. The winds were accompanied by heavy rain.
June 2004Tornado (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 2003Thunderstorm WindMarathon-Thunderstorm winds caused an unknown amount of crop damage.
May 2018HailMarathon-no account filed
June 2012HailMarathon-no account filed
June 2012HailMarathon-no account filed
June 2012HailMarathon-no account filed
May 2005HailMarathon-no account filed
May 2004HailMarathon-no account filed
June 2001HailMarathon-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindMarathon-no account filed
July 1999HailMarathon-no account filed
May 1998Tornado (F0)Marathon-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Buena Vista 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
Leverett3.1 miles8
Albert City5.8 miles8
Sioux Rapids9.2 miles9
Rembrandt10.1 miles9
Truesdale14.0 miles9
Linn Grove14.2 miles9
Sulphur Springs17.6 miles9
Newell17.7 miles9

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 MarathonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1929865The 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.