Wakarusa, Kansas
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1983. It stands in Williamsport Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66546. It stands on Towhead Creek. The Survey maps it on the Wakarusa quadrangle. 242 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 955 feet above sea level.
On record in Wakarusa
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 1 record
Wakarusa Hotellisted 1979
Population over time
2 figuresWakarusa fell from 260 to 242 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 | 260 | |
| 2020 | 242 | -18 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 18 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.
- 1889 USGS Burlingame quadrangle1:125000
- 1894 USGS Burlingame quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1947 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:250000
- 1950 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Wakarusa quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1961 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Lawrence quadrangle1:100000
- 1983 USGS Wakarusa quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
126 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 126 fires within 5 miles of Wakarusa between 2006 and 2020, burning about 1,296 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 74 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 September 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 1024 |
| 20 August 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 948 |
| 12 August 2015 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 916 |
| 8 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 280 |
| 2 July 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Shawnee County | not named |
| 18 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Osage County | 196 |
| 11 July 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Shawnee County | 248 |
| 28 June 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 713 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wakarusa in 10 storm reports between 1999 and 2023: 6 hail, 3 flood, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 2007 | Flood | Wakarusa | $2,000,000 | Most homes in the town of Wakarusa inundated with flood waters from the Wakarusa River. Water rescues of 22 residents stranded on their rooftops were conducted by the fire department. The rescues were hampered by floating propane tanks. Numerous roads in the county were closed by flood waters. Topeka city schools and some surrounding schools canceled classes. 500 water rescues were made in Topeka...300 along the Shunganunga Creek alone. The Rossville nursing home evacuated it's residents as a caution of flooding due to Cross Creek. Lake Sherwood, southwest of Topeka, reported water three feet above the emergency spillway. Numerous county roads were closed due to the flooding. Lowland flooding continued in the vicinity of Topeka with moderate or greater flooding along the Kansas River. |
| July 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wakarusa | - | Wind gust to 65 mph. |
| August 2016 | Hail | Wakarusa | - | Time was estimated by radar. |
| May 2010 | Flood | Wakarusa | - | A sheriff's deputy reported that the intersection of 101st and Burlingame Road is impassible due to flooding. |
| May 2010 | Flood | Wakarusa | - | An emergency manager reported 109th Street was closed due to flooding. |
| September 2019 | Hail | Wakarusa | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Wakarusa | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Wakarusa | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Wakarusa | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Wakarusa | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cullen Village | 3.9 miles | 18 | |
| Berryton | 5.1 miles | 18 | |
| Pauline | 5.4 miles | 18 | |
| Terra Heights | 6.3 miles | 18 | |
| Auburn | 6.5 miles | 17 | |
| Lindbloom Park | 7.9 miles | 16 | |
| Mathews Park | 8.1 miles | 18 | |
| Richland | 8.3 miles | 16 |
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 Wakarusa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6166056 | 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 479077. 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.








