Saint Olaf, Iowa
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Wagner Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52072. It stands on Howard Creek. The Survey maps it on the Saint Olaf quadrangle. 106 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 856 feet above sea level.
On record in Saint Olaf
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 within a mile 1 record
The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.
St. Olaf Auditoriumlisted 1994 · 0.1 miles away
Population over time
2 figuresSaint Olaf fell from 108 to 106 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 | 108 | |
| 2020 | 106 | -2 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 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.
- 1902 USGS Elkader quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Saint Olaf quadrangle1:24000
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Oelwein quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
7 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Saint Olaf between 2006 and 2020, burning about 63 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 May 2020 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 April 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 23 acres | Driftless National Wildlife Refuge | HOWARD CREEK |
| 1 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 22 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 22 workings within 5 miles of Saint Olaf: 9 unknowns, 7 past producers, 5 producers, 1 occurrence. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, Zinc. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elkader Mine | Zinc | Past Producer | Smithsonite | |
| Roadcut | Phosphorus-Phosphates | Past Producer | ||
| Bente Quarry | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Cheeseman Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Indian Lead Mines | Lead | Occurrence | Galena | |
| Old Indian Mines | Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Anderson Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Bente/Elkader Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Langsgaard Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Larson Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farmersburg | 2.4 miles | 12 | |
| Clayton Center | 4.4 miles | 12 | |
| Elkader | 5.3 miles | 12 | |
| National | 5.4 miles | 12 | |
| Froelich | 6.4 miles | 13 | |
| Valdora (historical) | 6.9 miles | 13 | |
| Gunder | 7.4 miles | 12 | |
| Giard | 7.4 miles | 13 |
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 Saint Olaf | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1925303 | 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 461233. 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.






