BlockBefore

Burns Harbor, Indiana

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Westchester Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46304. It stands on Samuelson Ditch. The Survey maps it on the Ogden Dunes quadrangle. 2,055 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 610 feet above sea level.

Burns Harbor within Porter County

Population over time

2 figures

Burns Harbor grew from 1,156 to 2,055 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
20101,156
20202,055+899 (+78%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 16 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

16,139 words on this township

Counties of Porter and Lake, Indiana : Historical and Biographical, published 1882; History of Porter County, Indiana : a Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests, published 1912 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Westchester Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Westchester Township - 16,139 words.

Fires near this place

345 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 345 fires within 5 miles of Burns Harbor between 1992 and 2020, burning about 432 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 26 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined85
Railroad operations and maintenance75
Debris and open burning37
Fireworks31
Arson/incendiarism26
Recreation and ceremony25
Misuse of fire by a minor19
Equipment and vehicle use18
Natural9
Smoking9
Power generation/transmission/distribution7
Other causes4

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
6 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreTREMONT STUMP
6 September 1994Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreNORTH
5 September 1998Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMISSEDFIRE
4 September 2018Railroad operations and maintenance1.0 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMILL
30 September 2000Railroad operations and maintenance5.0 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreSTEEL FIRE
30 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenance1.2 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreCAN
27 September 1997Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshorePAINT
25 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMIDDLE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Porter County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Burns Harbor: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
Box Sand Co PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Crisman Sand CompanySand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Lorenz Brothers Pit Number 1ClayPast Producer
Zehner PitClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Porter County

Storms near this place

4 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Burns Harbor in 4 storm reports between 2007 and 2020: 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 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
September 2014Thunderstorm WindBurns Harbor$5,000A tree fell down onto a car and power line on Old Porter Road.
October 2020HailBurns Harbor-Quarter size hail was reported near Route 12 and Route 149.
July 2007Thunderstorm WindBurns Harbor-Wind equipment at Burns Harbor measured a wind gust to 59 mph.
July 2017HailBurns Harbor-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Porter 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
Shady Side0.8 miles19
Meadowbrook0.9 miles17
Haglund1.3 miles17
Wilson1.4 miles19
Salt Creek Estates1.9 miles19
Crocker2.7 miles17
Dune Acres Station2.7 miles16
Dune Acres3.0 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 Burns HarborAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2680659The 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 449809. 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.