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Aurora, Indiana

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1915 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Center Township. It lies in ZIP code area 47001. It stands on Hogan Creek. The Survey maps it on the Aurora quadrangle. 3,479 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 486 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Aurora within Dearborn County

On record in Aurora

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 12 of 17 shown

Every listing in Dearborn County

Population over time

2 figures

Aurora fell from 3,750 to 3,479 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
20103,750
20203,479-271 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 19 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.

In the county-history sources

2,243 words on this township

History of Dearborn County Indiana, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Center Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The earliest land entered from the government was made by Daniel Con¬ ner, April 22, 1801. and it was resold to Oliver Ormsby, December 9, 1806. Ormsby must have purchased it for speculation, for the records fail to show that he ever lived upon it. Ormsby also bought a large tract of land at an early period in Mexico bottoms, in Switzerland county. The next tract of land entered was by Charles Wilkins, April 27. 1801. On December 19, of the same year, James Conn purchased fractional sections 27, 28 and 29 in township 5, range 1 west. Daniel Conner also entered fractional section 4. September 18, 1804, and resold it December 18, 1810, to G. R. Terrence. Charles Vattier entered sections 32 and 33, in town 5, range 1, September 18, 1804. This is the land on which the city of Aurora is situated. In 1806 David Rees and Nathan C. Findlay entered land in sections 19 and 20.

Passage source: History of Dearborn County Indiana, published 1915.

The town of Cochran, now incorporated with Aurora, on the right bank of South Hogan creek, joins the city of Aurora. The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern railway passes through it and the main street is the Aurora and Laughery turnpike. On account of the car shops of the railway company being erected here when the road was first constructed the town owes its origin. The town was laid out in section 31, township 5, range 1 west, and was platted and filed in the recorder's office of the county on August 25, i860. The postoffice was established in 1878, on July 4, with A. P. Shutts postmaster. The village suffered the loss of many of its inhabitants by the removal of the railway shops to Washington, Indiana, but has recovered from it now and is becoming both a residence and business part of the city of Aurora.

Passage source: History of Dearborn County Indiana, published 1915.

"Martin Cozine settled on what is now the James farm on South Hogan; Horsley, Scott and Petite in the same neighborhood. Nicholas Cheek Still lived below Wilson creek in the cabin first erected by him, but soon after Cochran came he built a small house out of hewed logs, probably the first one of the kind in the settlement. Francis, Page and Tavner, brothers of Nicholas Cheek, were here at that time. The bottom lands between this point and Petersburg, on the Kentucky side of the river were cleared and the country in the interior quite thickly settled. Petersburg, formerly Tanners Station, was an ambitious village. Lawrenceburg was laid out and growing. Aurora was yet unborn. Among those who settled in the neighborhood, from 1807 to 1812, and who have descendants still living here, may be mentioned the following: Charles Folbre, William Griffin, Thomas Billingsley, David Rees, Robert Milburn, Samuel Elder, Eleazer Small, William Wymond, Vachel Lindsay and William Winters. The last mentioned lived for a number of years on the bottoms above Wilson creek. Christopher Bingainan and Joseph Barlow were others. Barlow died some time ago near Burlington, Kentucky, at the age of one hundred and seven years."

Passage source: History of Dearborn County Indiana, published 1915.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Center Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Aurora: 2 producers, 1 past producer. 2 still produce. What was taken out: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
D & M MineSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Laughery PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Petersburg MineSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Dearborn County

Storms near this place

32 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Aurora in 32 storm reports between 1996 and 2022: 12 thunderstorm wind, 9 flash flood, 6 flood, 4 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
April 1999Tornado (F0)Aurora$250,000A small barn was totally destroyed, a 40 foot silo was damaged and several trees were downed. Four homes were heavily damaged in rural Dillsboro.
June 2021Flash FloodAurora$100,000Numerous reports of high water and flash flooding were received from the Aurora and Guilford areas. Several people and pets were stranded in Guilford due to rising water. Two vehicles were also swept away in the Guilford area after their occupants escaped.
March 1997Thunderstorm WindAurora$30,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindAurora$20,000A neighborhood near Aurora sustained structural damage to some homes and automobiles, as well as numerous trees being blown down, uprooted, or split. All of the damage was caused by straight-line winds estimated near 80 mph.
June 2017Flash FloodAurora$15,000A portion of Market Street in Aurora was ripped up due to flood waters.
March 2008FloodAurora$5,000Numerous roads were flooded across the county.
March 2008FloodAurora$5,000Numerous roads were flooded and closed.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindAurora$4,000Several trees were downed.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindAurora$3,000A few trees were downed.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindAurora$3,000A few trees were downed onto State Route 148.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindAurora$2,000Trees were reported down due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
February 2006Thunderstorm WindAurora$2,000Two trees were knocked down.
April 2006Thunderstorm WindAurora$2,000Power lines were downed.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindAurora$1,000A tree was downed due to thunderstorm winds.
June 2013Flash FloodAurora$1,000Multiple roads were closed due to high water caused by heavy rainfall.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindAurora$1,000Large branches were broken due to damaging thunderstorm winds.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindAurora$250A few small trees were downed on Wilson Creek Road.
May 2022FloodAurora-High water was reported on the roadway near the intersection of State Route 148 and U.S. 50.
February 2019FloodAurora-U.S. 50 westbound in Aurora was blocked due to high water.
February 2019FloodAurora-One road was closed near the Ohio County line due to flooding.
June 2019FloodAurora-High water was reported over 1 1/2 lanes of Wilson Creek Road.
February 2018Flash FloodAurora-Multiple roads were closed throughout the county due to high water.
March 2006Flash FloodAurora-High water caused several road closures.
May 2002Flash FloodAurora-An automobile was trapped when high water surged over a bridge.
May 2002Flash FloodAurora-Laughery Creek Road was closed by high water.
August 2001Flash FloodAurora-Heavy rainfall caused roads to be closed across the southern part of the county.
May 2022HailAurora-no account filed
April 2017Flash FloodAurora-no account filed
July 2014Thunderstorm WindAurora-no account filed
May 2011HailAurora-no account filed
June 1998HailAurora-no account filed
August 1996HailAurora-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Dearborn 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
Utah0.3 miles19
Westside0.6 miles19
Texas0.8 miles19
Cochran1.1 miles19
Wilmington2.4 miles19
Lawrenceburg3.6 miles16
Oldtown3.9 miles16
Greendale4.3 miles16

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 AuroraAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q431222The 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 430347. 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.

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.