What Cheer, Iowa
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Washington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 50268. The Survey maps it on the What Cheer quadrangle. 607 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 784 feet above sea level.
On record in What Cheer
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
Masonic Opera Houselisted 1973
Population over time
2 figuresWhat Cheer fell from 646 to 607 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 | 646 | |
| 2020 | 607 | -39 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 7 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 Des Moines quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS What Cheer quadrangle1:24000
- 1969 USGS Des Moines quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Oskaloosa quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
6 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of What Cheer between 2009 and 2017, burning about 123 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/undetermined | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 3408 170 ST, IA |
| 25 April 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | HWY 92 & 112TH AVE, IA |
| 12 April 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | 210TH & ZEPHER AVE, IA |
| 14 March 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 10 March 2017 | Arson/incendiarism | 3.0 acres | Iowa Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of What Cheer: 6 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What Cheer Clay Products Co. Pits | Clay, Bituminous | Past Producer | ||
| Just Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Kreise Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Clay | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
17 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names What Cheer in 17 storm reports between 1995 and 2018: 10 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 heavy rain, 1 flood. 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 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | $250,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | $10,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be 70 mph blew part of a roof off of the grandstand at the fairgrounds, tore part of a roof off a brick building on Main Street, downed power lines, and damaged numerous trees and branches in What Cheer, IA at 825 pm CDT June 18. |
| July 2003 | Hail | What Cheer | $10,000 | Trees also downed |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | $6,000 | Also reported by spotters; limbs down and tin roof off an outbuilding |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Heavy Rain | What Cheer | $2,000 | in 10 minutes |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | - | A public report of large trees down in What Cheer. The time of the event was estimated using radar. |
| April 2009 | Flood | What Cheer | - | Heavy rains during the last week of April resulted in the North Skunk River at Sigourney going above the moderate flood stage level of 18 feet on April 30th around 11 am. It crested around 19.17 feet around 8:45 pm April 30. It stayed in moderate flooding through the end of the month. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | - | Winds estimated to be 60 mph blew down some 2 inch diameter branches around 7:30 am on June 3 in the vicinity of What Cheer, IA. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | - | Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew down some branches in What Cheer, IA at 608 pm July 27. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | - | Wind gusts estimated to be 65 mph blew down a 4 foot diameter tree across a street in What Cheer, IA at 610 pm July 27. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | - | Wind gusts estimated to be 65 mph blew down a 4 foot diameter tree across a street in What Cheer, IA at 610 pm July 27. |
| August 2006 | Hail | What Cheer | - | Penny size hail was reported at an insurance office. |
| May 2001 | Hail | What Cheer | - | Nickel to quarter sized hail reported by law enforcement. |
| May 2001 | Hail | What Cheer | - | Quarter sized hail reported by trained storm spotter. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | What Cheer | - | Trees and power lines downed. |
| May 2003 | Hail | What Cheer | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosetta (historical) | 0.7 miles | 7 | |
| Vulcan (historical) | 1.5 miles | 7 | |
| Jamestown | 1.9 miles | 7 | |
| Coal Creek | 3.2 miles | 7 | |
| Thornburg | 3.8 miles | 7 | |
| Delta | 5.6 miles | 7 | |
| Gibson | 5.9 miles | 7 | |
| Atwood (historical) | 5.9 miles | 7 |
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 What Cheer | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2232996 | 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 465964. 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.





