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Thornburg, Iowa

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Prairie Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50136. The Survey maps it on the What Cheer quadrangle. 45 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 879 feet above sea level.

Thornburg within Keokuk County

On record in Thornburg

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

Thornburg fell from 67 to 45 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
201067
202045-22 (-33%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 7 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

5 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Thornburg between 2009 and 2017, burning about 121 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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/undetermined4
Arson/incendiarism1

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
11 May 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources3408 170 ST, IA
25 April 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined100 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
17 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
14 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 March 2017Arson/incendiarism3.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Keokuk County

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Thornburg: 4 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Clay, Bituminous. 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
What Cheer Clay Products Co. PitsClay, BituminousPast Producer
Just QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Keswick QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
UnknownClayPast Producer
UnknownClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Keokuk County

Storms near this place

7 since 2010

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Thornburg in 7 storm reports between 2010 and 2024: 3 flash flood, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2017Thunderstorm WindThornburg$2,000A public report was received via local broadcast media of at least two trees down in Thornburg. One tree was on a home and the other on power lines.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindThornburg$200The county emergency manager reported a power pole was blown down.
July 2024Flash FloodThornburg-Law Enforcement reported water flowing over a gravel road between What Cheer and Gibson. The time of the event was estimated using radar.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindThornburg-A large tree was blown down, relayed from broadcast media.
September 2018Flash FloodThornburg-Law enforcement reported two paved roads in northern Keokuk County were closed with water over the roads.
September 2012HailThornburg-Quarter sized hail fell about 1 mile north of Thornburg, IA around 417 am CDT September 7.
August 2010Flash FloodThornburg-Heavy rains resulted in flash flooding of area creeks east of What Cheer, IA during the afternoon of August 20.

Every storm recorded in Keokuk 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
Jamestown2.0 miles7
Vulcan (historical)3.0 miles7
Coal Creek3.3 miles7
Rosetta (historical)3.4 miles7
Gibson3.6 miles7
What Cheer3.8 miles7
Keswick5.1 miles7
Aurora5.8 miles7

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 ThornburgAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2233622The 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 462226. 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.