Alton, Indiana
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Boone Township. It lies in ZIP code area 47137. The Survey maps it on the Alton quadrangle. 29 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 427 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresAlton fell from 55 to 29 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 | 55 | |
| 2020 | 29 | -26 (-47%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 16 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.
- 1950 USGS Alton quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Alton quadrangle1:24000
- 1951 USGS Alton quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Vincennes quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Vincennes quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Vincennes quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1970 USGS Alton quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Jasper quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Alton quadrangle1:24000
- 1994 USGS Jasper quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
17 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Alton between 1999 and 2015, burning about 98 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were 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 | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Hoosier National Forest | HIGH WALL |
| 20 August 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Hoosier National Forest | BUZZARD ROOST |
| 17 July 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Hoosier National Forest | LIBERTY |
| 11 June 2015 | Arson/incendiarism | 6.0 acres | Hoosier National Forest | BIRDS CEMETERY |
| 7 April 2001 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Hoosier National Forest | YEOMAN |
| 6 April 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Hoosier National Forest | CORNFIELD |
| 22 April 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | 10 acres | Kentucky Division of Forestry | not named |
| 7 March 2001 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Hoosier National Forest | ORIOLE POND |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Alton: 2 producers, 1 prospect, 1 occurrence. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Fluorine-Fluorite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed Fluorite Occurrences | Fluorine-Fluorite | Occurrence | Fluorite | |
| Wolf Creek Clay Bed | Clay | Prospect | ||
| Cape Sandy Quarry #1 | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Riverside Mine | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alton in 3 storm reports between 2004 and 2015: 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | The public reported trees uprooted and snapped due to severe thunderstorm winds. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Alton | - | The county Emergency Manager reported 1.75 inch diameter hail in Alton. |
| June 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cape Sandy | 3.2 miles | 21 | |
| Artist Point | 3.6 miles | 21 | |
| Deuchars | 3.8 miles | 17 | |
| Fredonia | 4.3 miles | 17 | |
| Schooner Point Landing | 4.7 miles | 21 | |
| Jericho | 5.3 miles | 17 | |
| Beechwood | 5.8 miles | 17 | |
| Leavenworth | 6.6 miles | 21 |
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 Alton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q598864 | 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 450627. 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.









