Alto, Michigan
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Lowell Charter Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49302. The Survey maps it on the Alto quadrangle. It stands 814 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 12 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.
- 1918 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1943 USGS Lowell quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Alto quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
29 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Alto between 2018 and 2020, burning about 29 acres in total. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 July 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | CASCADE CHARTER TOWNSHIP FD 1208 - 2018 |
| 21 June 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | LOWELL AREA FD 450 - 2019 |
| 6 May 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | ALTO-BOWNE TOWNSHIP FD 0000103 - 2019 |
| 2 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | ALTO-BOWNE TOWNSHIP FD 0000085 - 2018 |
| 18 May 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | CASCADE CHARTER TOWNSHIP FD 816 - 2018 |
| 16 May 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | ALTO-BOWNE TOWNSHIP FD 0000105 - 2019 |
| 1 May 2018 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | LOWELL AREA FD 298 - 2018 |
| 8 April 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | CAMPBELL TOWNSHIP FD 65 - 2019 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Alto: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickett and Schreur Inc. Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
6 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Alto in 6 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 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 2004 | Hail | Alto | $25,000 | One inch hail was reported by broadcast media one mile east of Alto. |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | $10,000 | An isolated severe thunderstorm produced an estimated wind gust to 60 m.p.h. as well as 0.88 inch diameter hail in Alto at 3:20 p.m. |
| April 2026 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | - | Wind knocked a tree down on a house in the Alto area. |
| April 2008 | Hail | Alto | - | Postal office workers reported that three quarters inch hail fell for a couple of minutes. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Alto | - | A large tree eighteen inches in diameter was snapped off at it's base and took out a power pole near the intersection of 60th and Bancroft roads. Power lines and large branches were blown down just east of Ada. |
| June 1998 | Lightning | Alto | - | A fire sparked by a lightning strike destroyed the new education building of the Whitneyville Bible Church at 8546 Whitneyville Ave SE in Alto, located in southeast Kent County. Lightning struck the southwest corner of the building around 6:30 pm EDT, according to the church's senior pastor. The fire destroyed the 80-foot by 120-foot brick building and charred classrooms, musical instruments, furniture, books, and computers. An estimate of the damage was not available. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bowne Center | 3.1 miles | 12 | |
| McCords | 3.5 miles | 12 | |
| Whitneyville | 4.3 miles | 12 | |
| Segwun | 5.0 miles | 12 | |
| Alaska | 5.3 miles | 12 | |
| Lowell | 5.7 miles | 12 | |
| Labarge | 6.5 miles | 12 | |
| Cascade | 7.3 miles | 13 |
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 Alto | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q4736764 | 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 620029. 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.






