Gowdy, Indiana
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Orange Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46173. The Survey maps it on the Manilla quadrangle.
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 9 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.
- 1953 USGS Cincinnati quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Cincinnati quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Manilla quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1986 USGS New Castle quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
7,970 words on this townshipHistory of Rush County, Indiana, from the Earliest Time to the Present : with Biographical Sketches, Notes, Etc., Together with a Short History of the Northwest, the Indiana Territory, and the State of Indiana, published 1888; Rush County War Activities, 1861 to 1918, at Home and in the Field, published 1918 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Orange Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Orange Township - 7,970 words.
Fires near this place
1 since 2004Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Gowdy in 2004, burning about 3 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 October 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.0 acres | Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Gowdy: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, Dimension. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mc Corkle Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, Dimension | Producer | ||
| Rush County Stone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2011Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gowdy in 3 storm reports between 2011 and 2025: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2019 | Tornado (EF2) | Gowdy | $275,000 | The EF-2 rated tornado, with max wind speeds of 130 mph, began near the intersection of County Road 400 South and 550 West and tracked northeast. The worst damage was located just southwest of Rushville along County Road 300 South and Flatrock River Road. Two metal silos and a barn were destroyed at a property near the intersection and debris from these structures were twisted and carried one half to three quarters of a mile to the northeast. An extensive amount of trees were sheared and uprooted along Flatrock River Road.||Additional damage occurred to trailers parked at the Fraley and Schilling Trucking Company along State Route 3 just south of Rushville. The last area of significant damage occurred at a home along Orange Pike to the east-southeast of Rushville. Numerous trees were snapped and a detached and well anchored garage was completely destroyed.||Tree damage continued to the northeast of this point...crossing State Route 44 west of Glenwood before ending north of Glenwood near County Road 250 North. |
| April 2025 | Flash Flood | Gowdy | $50,000 | Many sections of Rushville were impassable due to flooding. Several streams nearby had near record flooding. Total rainfall ranged from 2.7 to 3.1 inches. |
| March 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gowdy | $1,000 | A tree was knocked down on to a road due to damaging thunderstorm wind gusts. |
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.
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 435248. 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.



