Promise City, Iowa
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1942 and the latest in 1981. It stands in South Fork Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52583. The Survey maps it on the Seymour West quadrangle. 88 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,053 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPromise City fell from 111 to 88 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 | 111 | |
| 2020 | 88 | -23 (-21%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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.
- 1942 USGS Seymour quadrangle1:62500
- 1944 USGS Seymour quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Centerville quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Seymour West quadrangle1:24000
- 1981 USGS Leon quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
5 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Promise City between 2008 and 2015, burning about 56 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 | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 July 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 23522 235TH , IA |
| 2 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 59150 210TH, IA |
| 2 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 1298 190TH, IA |
| 31 March 2015 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 October 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Promise City: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promise City Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
28 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Promise City in 28 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 7 thunderstorm wind, 7 flash flood, 7 heavy rain, 5 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2015 | Flash Flood | Promise City | $100,000 | Law Enforcement reported portion of Highway 2 east of Promise City was closed for a period of time during the mid morning, but has since reopened. Many other county gravel roads experiencing flooding. Local streams and creeks were also reported out of their banks. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $50,000 | A barn was blown down north of Promise City onto Highway S56. |
| May 2003 | Hail | Promise City | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Promise City | $25,000 | Water was over County Road S56 earlier in the morning. |
| July 2008 | Flood | Promise City | $25,000 | Water over 200th Ave South of the bridge over the Chariton River. Road was under water for about one quarter of a mile. |
| July 2008 | Flash Flood | Promise City | $25,000 | Two and one half to 4 inches of rain across the county with 200th Street closed at the Chariton River, 80th Street was passable, but limited road quality. |
| August 2014 | Flash Flood | Promise City | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Flood | Promise City | $25,000 | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Promise City | $25,000 | no account filed |
| April 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $20,000 | Roof damage was reported to a home, caused by thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $20,000 | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $15,000 | A large tree of 20 inches in diameter was down. |
| May 2019 | Flash Flood | Promise City | $10,000 | WHO TV reported water over the road on Highway 2 east of Promise City. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $10,000 | Power lines were downed with one power pole snapped just north of town. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $10,000 | High winds blew down Numerous large maple trees around a farm with 100 acres of flattened corn. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Promise City | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | A CoCoRaHS observer reported a 24 hour rain total of 2.3 inches. |
| May 2019 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | CoCoRaHS observer recorded heavy rainfall of 2.04 inches over the last 24 hours. |
| September 2019 | Flash Flood | Promise City | - | A vehicle hauling a trailer attempted to turn around to avoid water over the roadway and got stuck. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Promise City | - | Trained spotter reported golf ball sized hail. |
| June 2015 | Flash Flood | Promise City | - | Public reported roadways flooded in Promise City. |
| August 2014 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | Rainfall of 6.50 inches was relayed by KCCI Television. |
| April 2013 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | Rainfall of 5.90 inches. |
| July 2010 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | Rainfall of 5.72 inches since last night. |
| August 2009 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | Local TV station viewer reported 5.25 inches of rain in Promise City overnight through 7 AM this morning. |
| July 2008 | Heavy Rain | Promise City | - | A report of 3.1 inches of rain so far. |
| April 2013 | Hail | Promise City | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Promise City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgeport | 4.5 miles | 11 | |
| Seymour | 4.7 miles | 10 | |
| Bethelhem | 7.3 miles | 11 | |
| Harvard | 7.6 miles | 7 | |
| Confidence | 8.0 miles | 11 | |
| Corydon | 9.1 miles | 12 | |
| Sewal | 9.3 miles | 7 | |
| New York | 9.3 miles | 12 |
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 Promise City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1926450 | 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 460459. 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.






