BlockBefore

Portland, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Portland Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50401. It stands on Mason Creek. The Survey maps it on the Nora Springs quadrangle. 28 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,078 feet above sea level.

Portland within Cerro Gordo County

Population over time

2 figures

Portland fell from 35 to 28 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
201035
202028-7 (-20%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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

14 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Portland between 2006 and 2018, burning about 25 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/undetermined9
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Debris and open burning2

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
9 July 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 June 2012Railroad operations and maintenance5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 May 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 April 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 April 2018Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
20 April 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cerro Gordo County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 24 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Portland: 14 past producers, 9 producers, 1 unknown. 9 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay. 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
Faught PitClayProducer
Kirk PitClayProducer
Oswald Clay PitClayProducer
UnknownClayPast Producer
Ideal QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Portland QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Portland West QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
UnknownStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Weaver Readymix IncStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Cerro Gordo County PitsSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Cerro Gordo County

Storms near this place

14 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portland in 14 storm reports between 2007 and 2022: 7 flood, 2 flash flood, 2 heavy rain, 2 thunderstorm wind. 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
June 2008FloodPortland$1,000,000no account filed
August 2007FloodPortland$50,000no account filed
March 2011FloodPortland$25,000no account filed
March 2008FloodPortland$25,000no account filed
March 2010FloodPortland$10,000no account filed
June 2016Flash FloodPortland$5,000Law Enforcement reported water flowing pretty good over 260th street between Ulmus Ave and Thrush Ave. Water was deep enough for the Sheriff to put up barricades.
June 2016Flash FloodPortland$5,000Law Enforcement reported water flowing over the road at near 260th and 265th and Yarrow Ave.
September 2016Thunderstorm WindPortland$1,000Public reported a large tree downed, estimated 1 foot or more in diameter.
April 2022Thunderstorm WindPortland-Small outbuilding and large tree knocked over from the inflow into the storm at this location.
July 2018HailPortland-Public reported quarter sized hail.
September 2016Heavy RainPortland-CoCoRaHS observer reported heavy rainfall of 2.02 inches over the last 24 hours.
September 2016Heavy RainPortland-CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.61 inches over the last 24 hours.
April 2008FloodPortland-no account filed
May 2008FloodPortland-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cerro Gordo 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
Mason City Junction3.5 miles8
Hanford3.9 miles8
Mason City4.5 miles9
Cameron4.7 miles8
Rock Falls5.8 miles8
Central Heights6.3 miles9
Owen6.7 miles8
Plymouth Junction6.8 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 PortlandAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6083210The 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 460368. 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.