Belding, Michigan
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Belding City. It lies in ZIP code area 48809. The Survey maps it on the Belding quadrangle. 5,938 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 774 feet above sea level.
On record in Belding
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 3 records
Alvah N. Belding Memorial Librarylisted 1993
Pere Marquette Railway Belding Depotlisted 1997
Richardson Silk Milllisted 1985
Population over time
2 figuresBelding grew from 5,757 to 5,938 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 | 5,757 | |
| 2020 | 5,938 | +181 (+3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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.
- 1954 USGS Midland quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Midland quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Midland quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Midland quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Belding quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Cedar Springs quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Cedar Springs quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
28 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Belding between 1992 and 2020, burning about 202 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 August 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 August 2007 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 4.2 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BELDING FD 0000830 - 2019 |
| 4 July 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BELDING FD 0000763 - 2018 |
| 27 June 2012 | Fireworks | 6.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | MONTCALM 01 |
| 14 June 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | ORLEANS TOWNSHIP FD 0000096 - 2018 |
| 5 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | SHERIDAN COMMUNITY FD 2018040 - 2018 |
| 16 May 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BELDING FD 0000644 - 2019 |
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 Belding: 5 producers. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anderson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Harris Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Shook Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Wheeler Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Wheeler Sand and Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
15 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Belding in 15 storm reports between 1993 and 2022: 10 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 1 flood. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | 2 hurt, $300,000 | Michigan State Police EMD's Damage and Injury Assessment Report indicated $150,000 in public damage costs, another $150,000 in private property damage, 2000 homes damaged, 10 homes destroyed, and 10 businesses damaged. Two injuries were reported. Most of the significant damage was reported across the northern portion of the county including the cities of Belding, Muir, and Pewamo and the townships of Otisco, Orleans, Ronald, North Plains, and Lyons. Ionia County declared a local state of emergency and was granted a Governor's disaster declaration to activate state assistance to the county. On June 24th, President Clinton granted a Major Disaster Declaration for Ionia County, making federal disaster assistance available. |
| April 2013 | Flood | Belding | $7,000,000 | Heavy rainfall caused significant flooding on rivers and streams across Ionia county. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $50,000 | The public in Belding reported numerous trees were blown down. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $25,000 | Numerous trees were blown down throughout the county. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $20,000 | A few trees and tree limbs were blown down. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Belding | $15,000 | Hail broke a window on a home in Belding. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $10,000 | Ionia county dispatch reported they had various trees and limbs downed in Belding and Orleans. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $10,000 | Several 6 to 8 inch diameter tree limbs were blown down. |
| September 2022 | Hail | Belding | $5,000 | Nickel sized hail was reported and several small trees were blown down in and near Belding. |
| August 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $5,000 | Strong thunderstorm winds, gusting to 75 mph uprooted 116 trees, 100 of which were apple trees. That was estimated to be about 75 bushels. This was on Fisk road, just west of Belding. The total cost of the damage to this orchard was several thousand dollars. This all was from just one orchard, but most of the orchards in the Fisk Road area also reported medium to heavy damage from this storm. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Belding | - | An Ionia county official reported that numerous trees were blown down countywide and that power was out in the city of Ionia. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Belding | - | A trained spotter reported golf-ball sized hail along Fish Road, west of Michigan Highway 91 in Otisco Township. |
| July 1994 | Hail | Belding | - | Marble-size hail fell over approximately 1,000 acres of apple orchards causing damage to fruit that growers estimated could exceed $1,000,000. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cooks Corners | 1.9 miles | 10 | |
| Smyrna | 3.2 miles | 10 | |
| Orleans | 5.4 miles | 10 | |
| Shiloh | 7.6 miles | 10 | |
| Woods Corners | 8.3 miles | 10 | |
| Ionia | 11.3 miles | 12 | |
| Saranac | 11.6 miles | 12 | |
| South Ionia | 12.3 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 Belding | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2150417 | 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 621023. 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.






