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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.

What Cheer within Keokuk County

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

Population over time

2 figures

What 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.

YearPeople Change
2010646
2020607-39 (-6%)

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

6 since 2009

Regional 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/undetermined5
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
2 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIowa Department of Natural ResourcesHWY 92 & 112TH AVE, IA
12 April 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIowa Department of Natural Resources210TH & ZEPHER AVE, IA
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

6 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
What Cheer Clay Products Co. PitsClay, BituminousPast Producer
Just QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Kreise QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
UnknownClayPast Producer
UnknownClayPast Producer
UnknownClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Keokuk County

Storms near this place

17 since 1995

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 1995Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer$250,000no account filed
June 2010Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer$10,000Wind 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 2003HailWhat Cheer$10,000Trees also downed
August 2003Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer$6,000Also reported by spotters; limbs down and tin roof off an outbuilding
July 1995Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer$5,000no account filed
July 2003Heavy RainWhat Cheer$2,000in 10 minutes
August 2018Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer-A public report of large trees down in What Cheer. The time of the event was estimated using radar.
April 2009FloodWhat 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 2008Thunderstorm WindWhat 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 2008Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer-Wind gusts estimated to be 60 mph blew down some branches in What Cheer, IA at 608 pm July 27.
July 2008Thunderstorm WindWhat 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 2008Thunderstorm WindWhat 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 2006HailWhat Cheer-Penny size hail was reported at an insurance office.
May 2001HailWhat Cheer-Nickel to quarter sized hail reported by law enforcement.
May 2001HailWhat Cheer-Quarter sized hail reported by trained storm spotter.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindWhat Cheer-Trees and power lines downed.
May 2003HailWhat Cheer-no account filed

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
Rosetta (historical)0.7 miles7
Vulcan (historical)1.5 miles7
Jamestown1.9 miles7
Coal Creek3.2 miles7
Thornburg3.8 miles7
Delta5.6 miles7
Gibson5.9 miles7
Atwood (historical)5.9 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 What CheerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2232996The 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.