Wadena, Iowa
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1901 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Illyria Township. It lies in ZIP code area 52169. It stands on Plum Creek. The Survey maps it on the Wadena quadrangle. 209 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 883 feet above sea level.
On record in Wadena
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
- Hardware Buildinglisted 1977
Population over time
2 figuresWadena fell from 262 to 209 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 | 262 | |
| 2020 | 209 | -53 (-20%) |
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.
- 1901 USGS Oelwein quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Wadena quadrangle1:24000
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Oelwein quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
15 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Wadena between 2006 and 2012, burning about 108 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 | 13 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.5 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 April 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 17694 BIGHORN RD., WADENA, IA 50606, IA |
| 2 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 1028 FILMORE RD., ELGIN, IA, IA |
| 15 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 45 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 12 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 14447 GRAIN RD, FAYETTE, IOWA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
7 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Wadena: 6 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wadena Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gernand Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Nuttins Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Voshell Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Winger Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wadena in 7 storm reports between 1998 and 2016: 5 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 6 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wadena | 6 hurt, $2,500 | Numerous trees were blown down or uprooted in Wadena. Some of the trees went down on power lines. A two inch diameter flag pole was bent over and some cornfields were flattened. The high winds caused a school bus to slip off the road south of West Union with some of the students on board receiving a few bumps and bruises. |
| April 2014 | Hail | Wadena | - | Quarter sized hail fell in Wadena. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Wadena | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Funnel Cloud | Wadena | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Wadena | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Wadena | - | no account filed |
| March 1998 | Hail | Wadena | - | 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.
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 Wadena | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q677475 | 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 462599. 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.






