Tri-Lakes, Indiana

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Thorncreek Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46725. The Survey maps it on the Columbia City quadrangle. 1,329 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 938 feet above sea level.

Tri-Lakes within Whitley County

Population over time

2 figures

Tri-Lakes fell from 1,421 to 1,329 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	1,421
2020	1,329	-92 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 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.

1953 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1955 USGS Columbia City quadrangle1:24000
1956 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1965 USGS Columbia City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1984 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:100000
1994 USGS Fort Wayne quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

11,019 words on this township

History of Whitley County, Indiana, published 1907 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Thorncreek Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Thorncreek Township - 11,019 words.

Fires near this place

2 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Tri-Lakes in 2007, burning about 1 acre in total. 1 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
Debris and open burning	1
Natural	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
14 July 2007	Natural	under an acre	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named
8 November 2007	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Whitley County

Storms near this place

22 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tri-Lakes in 22 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 15 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 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
May 2022	Flash Flood	Tri Lakes	$300,000	Emergency management officials reported nearly 20 homes, as well as several local ditches and roads, were impacted by flash flooding as some locations in the Tri Lakes area received between three and five inches of rain over a few hour period. Some homes experienced a foot or more of water into the interior areas as well as crawlspaces and basements. Washouts of driveways, foundations and some local roads occurred. Damage is estimated at least at $300,000.
August 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	$20,000	Trees were reported down onto power lines.
October 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	$2,500	An eight inch (8) diameter tree was blown down across power lines.
August 2021	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	$1,000	Healthy pine tree about 1 to 2 feet in diameter snapped in half. Numerous tree limbs down ranging from 3 inches to 1 ft in diameter.
July 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	$1,000	Emergency management officials reported roughly two dozen trees either snapped or uprooted in a mobile home park west of Blue Lake. One tree fell onto a home, causing minor damage.
June 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	$500	Large limbs down on car.
June 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	A survey of damage by emergency management officials and NWS personnel indicated numerous trees and power lines were blown down in the Tri Lakes area, especially between State Routes 9 and 109. All roads at one point were impassable due to the amount of damage. The swath of damage continued southeast through Columbia City and towards the Allen county line. A semi was reported blown off the road on US-30. Spotter estimated and measured wind speeds of 70 to 80 mph were noted in some spots, both in the Tri Lakes area as well as approaching Allen county.
June 2020	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	EM Reports large tree down.
May 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Emergency management officials reported a tree fell over onto a power pole.
August 2018	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	An off duty NWS employee reported a large tree, between three and four feet in diameter, was blown down.
June 2011	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Emergency management officials reported a tree limb fell onto a power line, causing the line to break.
June 2008	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Amateur radio operators estimated a 60 mph wind gust at 100 East and US 33.
August 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Emergency Management officials reported numerous trees down.
August 2005	Hail	Tri Lakes	-	Hail ranging from nickel to quarter size was reported.
July 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Several large trees were blown down,
July 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Power lines and a tree was reported blown down.
August 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Tri Lakes	-	Power lines were blown down.
May 2011	Hail	Tri Lakes	-	no account filed
June 2000	Hail	Tri Lakes	-	no account filed
August 2000	Hail	Tri Lakes	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Tri Lakes	-	no account filed
June 1998	Hail	Tri Lakes	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Whitley 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Cresco	2.7 miles	11
Collins	4.4 miles	11
Five Points	4.5 miles	11
Ormas	6.5 miles	11
Churubusco	6.6 miles	11
Columbia City	6.6 miles	11
Lorane	6.7 miles	10
Etna	7.2 miles	11

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 Tri-Lakes	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2194048	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 444874. 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.

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.