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.
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
First National Bank Buildinglisted 1983- Alpha Public Buildings Historic Complexlisted 1983
Population over time
2 figuresAlpha 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 145 | |
| 2020 | 126 | -19 (-13%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 13 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.
- 1899 USGS Crystal Falls quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1944 USGS Fortune Lakes quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1946 USGS Fortune Lakes quadrangle1:31680, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Iron River quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Iron River quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Iron River quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Iron River quadrangle1:250000
- 1989 USGS Iron River quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
36 since 1992Regional 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 use | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 August 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | LIND ROAD |
| 7 July 2007 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 June 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 June 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.1 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 June 1994 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 June 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6.2 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 11 June 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 11 June 1992 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 145 shownRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue Lake Pit and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Stager Manganese Property | Manganese | Prospect | ||
| Alpha Mine | Iron | Past Producer | 1882, 1903 | |
| Alpha Mine | Iron | Past Producer | 1903 | |
| Balkan-Judson Mine | Iron | Past Producer | 1882, 1935 | |
| Balkan-Judson Mine | Iron | Past Producer | 1913 | |
| Book Mine | Iron | Past Producer | 1942, 1958 | |
| Book Mine | Iron | Past Producer | 1942, 1943 | |
| Bristol Mine | Iron | Past Producer | ||
| Bristol-Youngstown | Iron | Past Producer | 1892 |
Storms near this place
8 since 2000Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2016 | Flash Flood | Alpha | $100,000 | Heavy 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 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alpha | - | Trees were uprooted due to thunderstorm winds in Alpha. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Alpha | - | Penny sized hail was reported. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alpha | - | Several 12 inch diameter trees were blown down. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alpha | - | Numerous trees were blown down. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Alpha | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Alpha | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dunn Location | 1.7 miles | 12 | |
| Mastodon | 2.3 miles | 12 | |
| Panola | 2.6 miles | 12 | |
| Monongahela Location | 3.0 miles | 12 | |
| Shafer Location | 3.0 miles | 12 | |
| Tobin Location | 3.5 miles | 12 | |
| Naults | 3.7 miles | 10 | |
| Kimball Location | 4.0 miles | 12 |
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 Alpha | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3079860 | 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 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.







