Bronson, Kansas
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1990. It stands in Marion Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66716. The Survey maps it on the Bronson quadrangle. 304 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,070 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBronson fell from 323 to 304 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 | 323 | |
| 2020 | 304 | -19 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 17 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.
- 1886 USGS Iola quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Iola quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1904 USGS Iola quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1947 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1949 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Joplin quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Bronson quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Chanute quadrangle1:100000
- 1990 USGS Chanute quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
25 since 2012Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Bronson between 2012 and 2020, burning about 3,649 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Smoking | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Bourbon County | 223 |
| 23 August 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,200 acres | Kansas Counties | MINNESOTA ROAD |
| 26 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 241 |
| 14 April 2017 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Bourbon County | 124 |
| 10 April 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | not named |
| 8 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 64 |
| 6 March 2016 | Smoking | 5.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | MF16-04 |
| 5 March 2016 | Smoking | 20 acres | Kansas Forest Service | MF16-03 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
30 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bronson in 30 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 20 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 funnel cloud, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2009 | Hail | Bronson | $2,000,000 | A supercell thunderstorm produced golf ball sized hail over the community of Bronson. Nearly every home in Bronson sustained window damage and siding damage from this wind driven large hail. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bronson | $150,000 | Severe thunderstorm wind damage, resulting from a bow echo, produced a swath of wind damage from one mile north of Bronson into the town of Bronson. Damage along this path included numerous power lines down, downed trees and large limbs, an overturned vehicle, significant window damage to many buildings and roof damage to homes and outbuildings. |
| May 2009 | Tornado (EF1) | Bronson | $100,000 | A National Weather Service storm survey revealed that an EF-1 tornado impacted rural sections of western Bourbon County. The tornado damaged five large hay barns, several outbuildings, and uprtooted numerous trees. The wind speed was estimated at 90 mph. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bronson | $35,000 | Numerous power lines and telephone poles was reported down across the western part of the county. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bronson | $10,000 | Several Highway signs were blown over. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Bronson | $5,000 | Hail to two inches in diameter occurred in Bronson, Kansas. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bronson | $5,000 | Severe thunderstorm wind gusts caused minor damage to a barn along with a couple of outbuildings. A few power poles were also downed. |
| April 1993 | Hail | Bronson | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 1993 | Hail | Bronson | $500 | A thunderstorm dropped hail intermittently as it crossed southeast Kansas from Chanute toward Fort Scott. |
| April 2024 | Hail | Bronson | - | Nickle sized hail was reported. |
| October 2016 | Funnel Cloud | Bronson | - | A funnel cloud was spotted by the fire department about 5 miles north of Bronson off of Highway 3. |
| October 2016 | Hail | Bronson | - | Quarter size hail was reported north of Bronson. |
| October 2013 | Flash Flood | Bronson | - | The Bourbon County Emergency Management reported that several low water crossings and rural roadways around the Uniontown and Redfield area were impassable due to high water. The low water crossing near 125th and Maple Road was flooded. |
| April 2013 | Hail | Bronson | - | Hail reported relayed by Fort Scott Police Department. |
| May 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Bronson | - | A funnel cloud was observed by trained spotters approximately five miles southwest of Xenia. |
| May 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Bronson | - | A funnel cloud was observed over northwest Bourbon County. |
| June 2004 | Flash Flood | Bronson | - | Heavy thunderstorms affected areas of western Bourbon County during the early morning hours of June 12th. Several secondary roads were inundated with flash flooding near the community of Bronson. |
| April 2015 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| April 2015 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| May 2013 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Bronson | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uniontown | 6.2 miles | 19 | |
| Xenia | 8.3 miles | 19 | |
| Berlin | 9.6 miles | 19 | |
| Rockford (historical) | 9.6 miles | 17 | |
| Petersburg | 9.7 miles | 19 | |
| Redfield | 11.0 miles | 19 | |
| Porterville | 12.3 miles | 21 | |
| Mapleton | 13.0 miles | 14 |
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 Bronson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2901571 | 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 474525. 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.










