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Blue Rapids, Kansas

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Blue Rapids City Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66411. It stands on Little Blue River. The Survey maps it on the Blue Rapids quadrangle. 928 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,148 feet above sea level.

Blue Rapids within Marshall County

On record in Blue Rapids

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 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

Blue Rapids fell from 1,019 to 928 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
20101,019
2020928-91 (-9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 15 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.

Fires near this place

11 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Blue Rapids between 1996 and 2020, burning about 2,360 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Debris and open burning3

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
9 August 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreKansas Forest Service2018015
9 May 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresKansas Forest Servicenot named
3 May 2017Debris and open burning2.0 acresMarshall County2017009
16 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresKansas Forest Servicenot named
11 April 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresKansas Forest Service2015017
24 February 1996Missing data/not specified/undetermined2,288 acresMarshall Countynot named
17 February 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresKansas Forest Service2016006
17 February 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresKansas Forest Service2016007

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Marshall County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Blue Rapids: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite. 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
Blue Rapids Mine & MillGypsum-AnhydriteProducer
Blue Rapids Mine & MillGypsum-AnhydriteProducer

Every working recorded in Marshall County

Storms near this place

22 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blue Rapids in 22 storm reports between 1993 and 2007: 12 thunderstorm wind, 9 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1998Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids$10,000no account filed
July 1994Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids$5,000High winds knocked down trees and caused power outages with minor roof damage to some buildings.
May 1993Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids$5,000High winds caused damage to homes, uprooted trees and knocked out electricity in Blue Rapids.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids$5,000no account filed
September 2004Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids$2,000Strong winds blew down a 15 inch diameter tree limb which did minor damage to a pick-up truck parked nearby.
September 2007Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-Telephone pole blown down. Pea size hail also reported.
September 2007HailBlue Rapids-Two to four inch tree limbs also blown down.
April 2004Flash FloodBlue Rapids-Between 2 and 3 inches of rain fell in a short time and the runoff produced flash flooding. Water was reported running across some yards, driveways, and pastures. In Home City water was reported running in the streets for a time.
July 2004Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-Strong winds blew down a large tree onto highway 77.
June 2004Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-no account filed
October 2000Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-no account filed
October 2000HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
June 1999HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
April 1999Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindBlue Rapids-no account filed
July 1997HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
June 1997HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
May 1997HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
May 1997HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
June 1995HailBlue Rapids-no account filed
September 1993HailBlue Rapids-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Marshall 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
Bestwall2.1 miles15
Waterville4.7 miles15
Alcove Spring5.5 miles15
Shroyer6.1 miles15
Cottage Hill7.5 miles15
Reedsville8.8 miles14
Carden10.9 miles14
Marysville11.0 miles15

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 Blue RapidsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1936616The 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 473162. 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.