Rowan, Iowa
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Iowa Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50470. The Survey maps it on the Dows West quadrangle. 123 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,211 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRowan fell from 158 to 123 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 | 158 | |
| 2020 | 123 | -35 (-22%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 9 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 Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Waterloo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Dows West quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Iowa Falls quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Rowan between 2006 and 2009, burning about 10 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 | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 June 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 25 October 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Rowan: 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clarion Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Dows Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Patterson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
8 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rowan in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2021: 3 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1997 | Flash Flood | Rowan | $100,000 | no account filed |
| September 2016 | Flash Flood | Rowan | $50,000 | Law enforcement reported numerous secondary roads with water over topping them, with some now closed. Issues are mostly across northern Wright County, but scattered about elsewhere too. |
| May 1996 | Hail | Rowan | $10,000 | no account filed |
| December 2021 | Tornado (EF1) | Rowan | $5,000 | This tornado went through three counties including Wright, Franklin and Cerro Gordo. The tornado touched down just north of Rowan and moved northeast through rural eastern Wright county before crossing into Franklin County several miles northwest of Alexander. The tornado produced little damage in Wright County although some tree damage occurred just prior to crossing into Franklin County. This tornado was also found in high resolution satellite imagery. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rowan | $5,000 | Two to four inch diameter branches down as well as power lines down. |
| May 1999 | Hail | Rowan | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Hail | Rowan | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rowan | $2,000 | An old pine tree was snapped 10 feet up from the base. |
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.
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 Rowan | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q533345 | 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 460836. 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.



