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Alpha, Michigan

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Mastodon Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49920. It stands on Alpha Creek. The Survey maps it on the Fortune Lakes quadrangle. 126 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,424 feet above sea level.

Alpha within Iron County

On record in Alpha

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

Population over time

2 figures

Alpha fell from 145 to 126 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
2010145
2020126-19 (-13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 13 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

36 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 36 fires within 5 miles of Alpha between 1992 and 2019, burning about 206 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 2 were 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
Equipment and vehicle use9
Debris and open burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Recreation and ceremony3
Smoking3
Natural2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Arson/incendiarism2

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
25 August 2011Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesLIND ROAD
7 July 2007Natural2.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 June 1994Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 June 1994Equipment and vehicle use1.1 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
9 June 1994Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
15 June 2007Missing data/not specified/undetermined6.2 acresMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
11 June 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
11 June 1992Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMichigan Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Iron County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 145 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 145 workings within 5 miles of Alpha: 54 occurrences, 51 past producers, 39 prospects, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Manganese, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Blue Lake Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Stager Manganese PropertyManganeseProspect
Alpha MineIronPast Producer1882, 1903
Alpha MineIronPast Producer1903
Balkan-Judson MineIronPast Producer1882, 1935
Balkan-Judson MineIronPast Producer1913
Book MineIronPast Producer1942, 1958
Book MineIronPast Producer1942, 1943
Bristol MineIronPast Producer
Bristol-YoungstownIronPast Producer1892

Every working recorded in Iron County

Storms near this place

8 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alpha in 8 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 4 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
October 2016Flash FloodAlpha$100,000Heavy rain caused washouts or partial washouts of several roads in Iron County. The more significant road damage was reportedly in the Alpha area along County Road 424.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindAlpha-Trees were uprooted due to thunderstorm winds in Alpha.
April 2004HailAlpha-Penny sized hail was reported.
June 2002Thunderstorm WindAlpha-Several 12 inch diameter trees were blown down.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindAlpha-Numerous trees were blown down.
July 2025HailAlpha-no account filed
May 2008HailAlpha-no account filed
June 2000HailAlpha-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Iron 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
Dunn Location1.7 miles12
Mastodon2.3 miles12
Panola2.6 miles12
Monongahela Location3.0 miles12
Shafer Location3.0 miles12
Tobin Location3.5 miles12
Naults3.7 miles10
Kimball Location4.0 miles12

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 AlphaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3079860The 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 620021. 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.