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.
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
- Rock Falls Bridgelisted 1998
Population over time
2 figuresRock 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 155 | |
| 2020 | 150 | -5 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 8 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
- 1959 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:62500
- 1959 USGS Nora Springs quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Mason City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
18 since 2006Regional 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/undetermined | 13 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Natural | 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 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 July 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 10 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 June 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 June 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 10 June 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bernhardt | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Rock Falls Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Jorgensen Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
13 since 1996Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rock Falls | $10,000 | Large tree limbs down in Plymouth and Rock Falls. Tree on vehicle in Rockfalls. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Rock Falls | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rock Falls | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rock Falls | $2,000 | no account filed |
| December 2021 | Tornado (EF0) | Rock Falls | $500 | Another 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 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rock Falls | - | Delayed report with areal photography showing extensive wind damage to crops about 2 miles north of Rock Falls. Time estimated via radar. |
| September 2016 | Hail | Rock 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 2016 | Hail | Rock Falls | - | Public reported mostly quarter sized hail with a few larger stones mixed in. |
| August 2016 | Hail | Rock Falls | - | Trained spotter reported quarter sized hail. |
| August 2016 | Hail | Rock Falls | - | Public reported nickel sized hail. |
| July 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Rock Falls | - | Tornado touched down briefly in open field. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Rock Falls | - | no account filed |
| November 2003 | Hail | Rock Falls | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheelerwood | 2.6 miles | 8 | |
| Plymouth Junction | 2.8 miles | 9 | |
| Plymouth | 3.3 miles | 8 | |
| Portland | 5.8 miles | 8 | |
| Freeman | 6.1 miles | 9 | |
| Mason City | 7.2 miles | 9 | |
| Mason City Junction | 8.3 miles | 8 | |
| Hanford | 9.7 miles | 8 |
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 Falls | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1000237 | 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 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.





