Cawker City, Kansas
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Cawker Township. It lies in ZIP code area 67430. The Survey maps it on the Cawker City quadrangle. 457 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,496 feet above sea level.
On record in Cawker City
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 2 records
Old Cawker City Librarylisted 1973- Wisconsin Street Historic Districtlisted 1986
Population over time
2 figuresCawker City fell from 469 to 457 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 | 469 | |
| 2020 | 457 | -12 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 15 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.
- 1894 USGS Mankato quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Beloit quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1962 USGS Cawker City quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Smith Center quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 2015Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Cawker City between 2015 and 2018, burning about 53 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/undetermined | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 June 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 180010 |
| 23 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 3232015 |
| 18 February 2016 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 160002 |
| 18 October 2015 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 150034 |
| 30 January 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 acres | Mitchell County | 170004 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
50 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cawker City in 50 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 25 hail, 18 thunderstorm wind, 4 heavy rain, 2 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 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $500,000 | Extremely strong thunderstorm winds caused major tree and structural damage throughout the town. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $75,000 | An estimated wind gust of 75 mph dropped tree limbs throughout Cawker City, which resulted in a lengthy power outage in the area. |
| May 2008 | Flash Flood | Cawker City | $75,000 | Thunderstorms rumbled across northern Kansas and dumped several inches of rain across Mitchell County. This caused several rural roads and area creeks and streams to flood. |
| May 2002 | Hail | Cawker City | $70,000 | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Flood | Cawker City | $50,000 | Runoff from heavy rainfall in excess of 4 inches in Smith and Jewell Counties resulted in flooding along the Solomon River near and downstream of Beloit. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Cawker City | $25,000 | Hail up to ping pong ball size was reported. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $25,000 | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $20,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Flood | Cawker City | $15,000 | As a result of rainfall totals as high as 3 to 5 inches reported in the area, flooding occurred across northwestern portions of the county. A few county roads were reported covered in water and closed, with some road closures lasted well into the day on the 25th. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Cawker City | $15,000 | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $10,000 | Power lines were downed just east of Cawker City. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Cawker City | $10,000 | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Cawker City | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $8,000 | Wind gusts estimated to be near 65 MPH caused roof damage to a mobile home. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $6,000 | Wind gusts estimated near 60 mph knocked over a 12 inch diameter tree onto a house. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $5,000 | A 75 MPH wind gust was measured by a mesonet station located 1 mile northwest of Cawker City. Tree limbs were downed at Glen Elder State Park. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $5,000 | Several tree limbs were blown down in and near Cawker City, some with a diameter of 6 to 8 inches, from wind gusts estimated to be near 60 mph. A few of the tree limbs downed power lines, causing power outages. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $5,000 | Minor tree limb damage was reported. |
| April 2008 | Hail | Cawker City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | $1,000 | A large tree was blown down. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | - | A wind gust of 66 MPH was measured by mesonet station located two miles north of Cawker City. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | - | A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located two miles north of Cawker City. |
| June 2018 | Heavy Rain | Cawker City | - | A storm total rainfall amount of 3.87 inches was recorded at Cawker City, with 3.56 inches recorded 10 miles south-southwest of Beloit. |
| September 2018 | Heavy Rain | Cawker City | - | A 24 hour rainfall total of 4.10 inches was reported, with the brunt of the rain falling between 5 PM CDT on the 1st and 4 AM CDT on the 2nd. |
| August 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | - | Mitchell County dispatch relayed this report. |
| August 2015 | Heavy Rain | Cawker City | - | CoCoRaHS observers reported 24-hour total rainfall of 6.15 inches six miles northwest of Barnard, and 5.61 ten miles south-southwest of Beloit. Also, a 24 hour total of 3.45 was reported by the NWS cooperative observer in Cawker City. These amounts occurred from multiple rounds of heavy rain. |
| May 2011 | Heavy Rain | Cawker City | - | Storm total rainfall of 3.31 inches was reported. |
| July 1995 | Hail | Cawker City | - | Thunderstorms dropped large hail, up to the size of baseballs, which flattened wheat fields. Hail covered the ground at Tipton and accumulated in drifts near Osborne. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| August 2020 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| September 2018 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2018 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| April 2012 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| March 2006 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cawker City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Glen Elder | 6.7 miles | 14 | |
| Tipton | 11.9 miles | 12 | |
| Solomon Rapids | 13.1 miles | 12 | |
| Blue Hill | 14.7 miles | 12 | |
| Beloit | 17.8 miles | 13 | |
| Hunter | 19.3 miles | 12 | |
| Victor | 19.9 miles | 12 | |
| Gilbert | 20.9 miles | 13 |
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 Cawker City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2452635 | 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 472174. 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.




