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.
Population over time
2 figuresOrchard 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 71 | |
| 2020 | 68 | -3 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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 Mason City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Orchard quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Charles City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
13 since 2008Regional 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/undetermined | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2015 | Natural | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 April 2015 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 April 2016 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | OSAGE |
| 30 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 March 2015 | Smoking | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 November 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 November 2016 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | WAUKON AREA FIRE PROT. DIST. |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 13 shownRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Costa Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Decklever Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Schmidt Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Cedar Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Dykeman Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Lesch Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Mahoney Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 1994Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2017 | Lightning | Orchard | $60,000 | A 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 1994 | Hail | Orchard | $50,000 | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Flash Flood | Orchard | $5,000 | Heavy rains caused Spring Creek to go out of its banks and undercut railroad tracks near Orchard. |
| August 1994 | Hail | Orchard | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Flash Flood | Orchard | $4,000 | Heavy 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 2006 | Hail | Orchard | $500 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard | $500 | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Flash Flood | Orchard | - | 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 2008 | Funnel Cloud | Orchard | - | 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 2008 | Hail | Orchard | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Osage | 4.4 miles | 7 | |
| Rock Creek | 7.8 miles | 7 | |
| New Haven | 7.9 miles | 7 | |
| Mitchell | 8.3 miles | 7 | |
| Brownville | 9.4 miles | 7 | |
| Little Cedar | 10.8 miles | 7 | |
| Dixie (historical) | 12.1 miles | 7 | |
| Saint Ansgar | 13.0 miles | 7 |
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 Orchard | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q998872 | 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 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.




