BlockBefore

Rock Falls, Iowa

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Falls Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50467. It stands on Rock Falls Creek. The Survey maps it on the Nora Springs quadrangle. 150 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,102 feet above sea level.

Rock Falls within Cerro Gordo County

On record in Rock Falls

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Rock Falls fell from 155 to 150 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
2010155
2020150-5 (-3%)

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

18 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Rock Falls between 2006 and 2018, burning about 18 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/undetermined13
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Debris and open burning2
Natural1

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
23 September 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 July 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 June 2012Railroad operations and maintenance5.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
13 June 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 June 2017Naturalunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 May 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 May 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresIowa 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 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Rock Falls: 9 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: 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
BernhardtStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Rock Falls QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Jorgensen PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cerro Gordo County

Storms near this place

13 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rock Falls in 13 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 7 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. 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
July 2025Thunderstorm WindRock Falls$10,000Large tree limbs down in Plymouth and Rock Falls. Tree on vehicle in Rockfalls.
April 2004HailRock Falls$5,000no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindRock Falls$5,000no account filed
July 2000Thunderstorm WindRock Falls$2,000no account filed
December 2021Tornado (EF0)Rock Falls$500Another tornado found via high resolution satellite imagery. The tornado did some minor tree damage with little additional damage as the tornado passed through far northeast rural Cerro Gordo County.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindRock Falls-Delayed report with areal photography showing extensive wind damage to crops about 2 miles north of Rock Falls. Time estimated via radar.
September 2016HailRock Falls-Trained spotter reported hail lasted for around 10 minutes, starting out as pea sized and gradually got bigger to around half dollar size.
August 2016HailRock Falls-Public reported mostly quarter sized hail with a few larger stones mixed in.
August 2016HailRock Falls-Trained spotter reported quarter sized hail.
August 2016HailRock Falls-Public reported nickel sized hail.
July 2005Tornado (F0)Rock Falls-Tornado touched down briefly in open field.
April 2004HailRock Falls-no account filed
November 2003HailRock Falls-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
Wheelerwood2.6 miles8
Plymouth Junction2.8 miles9
Plymouth3.3 miles8
Portland5.8 miles8
Freeman6.1 miles9
Mason City7.2 miles9
Mason City Junction8.3 miles8
Hanford9.7 miles8

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 Rock FallsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1000237The 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 460739. 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.