Wathena, Kansas
21 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1924 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Washington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 66090. It stands on Peters Creek. The Survey maps it on the Wathena quadrangle. 1,246 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 827 feet above sea level.
On record in Wathena
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 4 records
Wathena Fruit Growers' Association Buildinglisted 2009- Herman Chrystal Barnlisted 1987
- Fred W. Kienhoff Barnlisted 1987
- John Silvers Barnlisted 1987
Population over time
2 figuresWathena fell from 1,364 to 1,246 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 | 1,364 | |
| 2020 | 1,246 | -118 (-9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 21 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.
- 1924 USGS St. Joseph quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1926 USGS Saint Joseph quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1926 USGS St. Joseph quadrangle1:62500
- 1950 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS Wathena quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1980 USGS Wathena quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Saint Joseph 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 Wathena between 2015 and 2018, burning about 816 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 September 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Doniphan County | 017-108 |
| 15 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 28 |
| 14 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 2018031 |
| 14 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 400 acres | Kansas Forest Service | 27 |
| 14 January 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Kansas Forest Service | 5 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Wathena: 3 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heuemander Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Wathena Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| St Joseph Dredge | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
20 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wathena in 20 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 9 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 lightning. 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 2000 | Lightning | Wathena | $200,000 | Lightning struck a historic building, most recently used as a dance studio, in downtown Wathena. The fire that followed rendered the building a total loss, but did not spread to any other buildings. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $35,000 | Thunderstorm winds blew down a tree which fell on and totaled a trailer in Wathena. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $10,000 | Multiple trailers were damaged by thunderstorm wind gusts, estimated up to 70 mph, near the Lake Contrary area. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $8,000 | Roof was blown off a Conoco gas station along Highway 36. |
| June 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | $5,000 | Winds estimated at 60 mph tore some of the shingles off of a roof. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Wathena | - | Photo of tennis ball sized hail in Wathena. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | A storm chaser reported 65 mph winds. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 70 mph. |
| April 2009 | Tornado (EF0) | Wathena | - | A brief EF0 tornado touchdown, was observed by a trained spotter, around one mile east of Elwood, at 1910 CST. No damage was observed. |
| June 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Wathena | - | Tornado touched down near the Pony Express Bridge and then crossed the Missouri River into St. Joseph Missouri. No significant damage was noted except to some tree limbs. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Wathena | - | The Doniphan County Sheriff's Office reported quarter-size hail during a severe thunderstorm at Wathena. |
| May 2018 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2009 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Wathena | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Wathena | - | 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.
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 Wathena | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1864288 | 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 473057. 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.









