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Free Soil, Michigan

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1931 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Free Soil Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49411. It stands on Ritters Creek. The Survey maps it on the Free Soil quadrangle. 158 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 686 feet above sea level.

Free Soil within Mason County

Population over time

2 figures

Free Soil grew from 144 to 158 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
2010144
2020158+14 (+10%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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

48 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 48 fires within 5 miles of Free Soil between 1992 and 2020, burning about 134 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 3 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
Debris and open burning17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined11
Natural5
Recreation and ceremony4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Arson/incendiarism3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Other causes1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Smoking1

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
9 September 2012Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreHuron-Manistee National ForestTUTTLE RD
24 September 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreHuron-Manistee National ForestTRASH PILE
1 August 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesFOUNTAIN AREA FD 0078745 - 2019
31 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesFOUNTAIN AREA FD 0078362 - 2019
30 July 2015Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresHuron-Manistee National ForestRUSTY
3 July 1994Missing data/not specified/undetermined20 acresHuron-Manistee National ForestFIRECRACKER
29 July 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresHuron-Manistee National ForestHASENBANK
25 July 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreHuron-Manistee National ForestFREESOIL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Mason 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
Fountain4.6 miles9
Sugar Grove7.8 miles9
Batcheller8.4 miles9
Millerton10.0 miles10
Tallman10.1 miles11
Custer10.7 miles11
Scottville11.0 miles10
Amber11.8 miles10

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 Free SoilAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2179734The 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 1617399. 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.