Kalkaska, Michigan
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Kalkaska Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49646. It stands on Vipond Creek. The Survey maps it on the Kalkaska quadrangle. 2,132 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,033 feet above sea level.
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Population over time
2 figuresKalkaska grew from 2,020 to 2,132 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 | 2,020 | |
| 2020 | 2,132 | +112 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 15 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 Traverse City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1956 USGS Kalkaska quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Traverse City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1983 USGS Traverse City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Kalkaska quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Traverse City quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
75 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 75 fires within 5 miles of Kalkaska between 1992 and 2020, burning about 82 acres in total. 2 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 burning | 21 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 10 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 26 September 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 August 1996 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 August 2001 | Debris and open burning | 2.5 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 25 August 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6.5 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | KALKASKA 09 - VALLEY |
| 18 August 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | KALKASKA 08 |
| 18 August 2013 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | KALKASKA 07 |
| 10 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | BEAR LAKE TOWNSHIP FD 0020849 - 2019 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
27 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Kalkaska in 27 storm reports between 1995 and 2021: 20 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 tornado, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2005 | Lightning | Kalkaska | 1 hurt | A woman was briefly hospitalized after a lightning strike at her home. |
| May 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $25,000 | Over a hundred trees were downed, scattered across central and eastern Kalkaska County. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska- | $25,000 | Numerous trees were downed and power outages occurred along U.S, 131, from four miles north of Kalkaska to South Boardman. |
| June 2006 | Flash Flood | Kalkaska | $20,000 | Nearly stationary thunderstorms developed in the pre-dawn hours, directly underneath a slow-moving upper level low pressure system. Radar estimated that around 4 inches of rain fell in a portion of the Rapid River basin, just north of Kalkaska. Flooding was enhanced by the failure of a beaver dam on a small creek. Part of Wood Road was washed out by the high water, and Smith and Holly Roads were also impacted. Traffic on US-131 at the Rapid River bridge was reduced to one lane for a time, as waters raged close to underside of the bridge. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $10,000 | Widespread tree and powerline damage over northern half of Kalkaska county between approximately 1055 and 1125 PM. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $8,000 | A number of trees and power lines were downed in Kalkaska and other parts of northern Kalkaska County. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $5,000 | A barn roof was torn off and blown 200 yards to the northeast. A number of trees were downed. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $4,000 | Trees downed at intersection of county road 571 and Twin Lake Road. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $3,000 | Pictures of multiple down trees in the village of Kalkaska. Time estimated via radar. |
| August 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | $2,000 | Reports of trees down from MPING. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Kalkaska | - | Another day of pop-up afternoon thunderstorms, thanks to cold air aloft residing over the Great Lakes region. One storm produced nickel sized hail in Kalkaska County. |
| September 2004 | Hail | Kalkaska | - | An isolated severe thunderstorm produced marginally large hail in Kalkaska. |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Several trees and power lines down. |
| April 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Camper overturned. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Several 10 to 15 inch diameter trees downed. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Several trees down. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Trees and power lines down. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Trees down. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Trees and power lines down |
| September 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Several trees snapped off and/or uprooted. |
| May 1998 | Tornado (F1) | Kalkaska | - | A tornado intermittently on the ground for around 7 miles destroyed one mobile home and damaged 2 others. The combination of tornadic and straight-line winds also downed numerous trees. |
| June 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Kalkaska | - | Brief tornado touchdown with no reported damage. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Strong straight-line thunderstorm winds tore the roof off a building. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Strong thunderstorm wind gusts to 90 mph tore the roof off one home and toppled trees onto several others. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | Strong thunderstorm winds downed numerous trees. |
| May 2001 | Hail | Kalkaska | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Kalkaska | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leetsville | 4.4 miles | 14 | |
| Crofton | 5.3 miles | 15 | |
| Lodi | 6.5 miles | 15 | |
| Cotton | 6.9 miles | 14 | |
| Darragh | 7.1 miles | 14 | |
| Spencer | 7.2 miles | 14 | |
| Sigma | 7.9 miles | 14 | |
| Barker Creek | 8.0 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 Kalkaska | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1872475 | 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 629450. 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.
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.





