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Orchard, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in West Lincoln Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50460. It stands on Slough Creek. The Survey maps it on the Orchard quadrangle. 68 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,102 feet above sea level.

Orchard within Mitchell County

Population over time

2 figures

Orchard fell from 71 to 68 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
201071
202068-3 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 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.

Fires near this place

13 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Orchard between 2008 and 2016, burning about 50 acres in total. 1 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/undetermined4
Debris and open burning4
Equipment and vehicle use2
Smoking1
Natural1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
7 September 2015Naturalunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 April 2015Debris and open burning10 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 April 2016Debris and open burning5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural ResourcesOSAGE
30 March 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 March 2015Smokingunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 March 2015Debris and open burning1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 November 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined25 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 November 2016Debris and open burning5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural ResourcesWAUKON AREA FIRE PROT. DIST.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Mitchell County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 13 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 13 workings within 5 miles of Orchard: 6 past producers, 6 producers, 1 unknown. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
La Costa PitSand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Decklever PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Schmidt PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Cedar QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Dykeman QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Lesch QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Mahoney QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer

Every working recorded in Mitchell County

Storms near this place

10 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orchard in 10 storm reports between 1994 and 2017: 4 hail, 3 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. 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 2017LightningOrchard$60,000A 4,500 square foot building south of Osage was completely destroyed in a fire started by a lightning strike. The lightning hit a cable line and then jumped to a gas line that went into the building.
August 1994HailOrchard$50,000no account filed
June 2016Flash FloodOrchard$5,000Heavy rains caused Spring Creek to go out of its banks and undercut railroad tracks near Orchard.
August 1994HailOrchard$5,000no account filed
June 2016Flash FloodOrchard$4,000Heavy rains caused a branch of Spring Creek to go out of its banks north of Orchard. Between 15 and 20 calves were lost in the flooding.
May 2006HailOrchard$500no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindOrchard$500no account filed
June 2016Flash FloodOrchard-Heavy rain caused Slough Creek to go out of its banks and cover U.S. Highway 218 at the intersection with 330th Street southeast of Osage.
June 2008Funnel CloudOrchard-A funnel cloud was reported along the Mitchell and Floyd County line, near Orchard, IA. The formation and associated wall cloud was well photographed, which ended up being widely distributed on the Internet labeled as other storms in other parts of the state and country. The photos were even being sold on eBay (online auction site).
June 2008HailOrchard-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Mitchell 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
Osage4.4 miles7
Rock Creek7.8 miles7
New Haven7.9 miles7
Mitchell8.3 miles7
Brownville9.4 miles7
Little Cedar10.8 miles7
Dixie (historical)12.1 miles7
Saint Ansgar13.0 miles7

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 OrchardAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q998872The 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 459886. 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.