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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.

Wakarusa within Shawnee County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Wakarusa 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.

YearPeople Change
2010260
2020242-18 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 18 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

126 since 2006

Regional 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 burning74
Missing data/not specified/undetermined39
Smoking6
Recreation and ceremony3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Arson/incendiarism1

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
15 September 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresKansas Forest Service1024
20 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKansas Forest Service948
12 August 2015Debris and open burning3.0 acresKansas Forest Service916
8 July 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresKansas Forest Service280
2 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreShawnee Countynot named
18 July 2017Debris and open burning3.0 acresOsage County196
11 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresShawnee County248
28 June 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresKansas Forest Service713

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Shawnee County

Storms near this place

10 since 1999

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2007FloodWakarusa$2,000,000Most 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 2023Thunderstorm WindWakarusa-Wind gust to 65 mph.
August 2016HailWakarusa-Time was estimated by radar.
May 2010FloodWakarusa-A sheriff's deputy reported that the intersection of 101st and Burlingame Road is impassible due to flooding.
May 2010FloodWakarusa-An emergency manager reported 109th Street was closed due to flooding.
September 2019HailWakarusa-no account filed
May 2016HailWakarusa-no account filed
May 2016HailWakarusa-no account filed
May 2016HailWakarusa-no account filed
May 1999HailWakarusa-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Shawnee 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
Cullen Village3.9 miles18
Berryton5.1 miles18
Pauline5.4 miles18
Terra Heights6.3 miles18
Auburn6.5 miles17
Lindbloom Park7.9 miles16
Mathews Park8.1 miles18
Richland8.3 miles16

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 WakarusaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q6166056The 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.