Paw Paw, Michigan
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1944 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Paw Paw Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49079. It stands on East Branch Paw Paw River. The Survey maps it on the Paw Paw quadrangle. 3,362 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 732 feet above sea level.
On record in Paw Paw
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
Paw Paw City Halllisted 1972
Van Buren County Courthouse Complexlisted 1979
Population over time
4 figuresPaw Paw grew from 1,428 to 3,362 between 1870 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1870 | 1,428 | |
| 2000 | 3,363 | |
| 2010 | 3,534 | +171 (+5%) |
| 2020 | 3,362 | -172 (-5%) |
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.
- 1944 USGS Marcellus quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1946 USGS Marcellus quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Grand Rapids quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Paw Paw quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Kalamazoo quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
29 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Paw Paw between 2002 and 2020, burning about 30 acres in total. 1 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 | 20 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAW PAW VFD 0000165 - 2019 |
| 9 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAW PAW VFD 0000142 - 2019 |
| 5 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAW PAW VFD 0000137 - 2019 |
| 2 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAW PAW VFD 0000153 - 2018 |
| 19 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | VANBUREN 02 - 38TH ST |
| 13 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | LAWTON FD 0000078 - 2019 |
| 20 July 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 May 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Michigan Department of Natural Resources | PAW PAW VFD 0000099 - 2018 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Paw Paw: 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Budzen Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Klett Sand and Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
16 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paw Paw in 16 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 5 hail, 1 tornado. 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 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $50,000 | The general public reported that numerous trees were blown down in Paw Paw. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Paw Paw | $50,000 | Two inch diameter hail was reported by area law enforcement in Paw Paw. Another report of three quarters inch hail was received from Paw Paw. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Paw Paw | $50,000 | no account filed |
| December 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $40,000 | A square yard of shingles was blown off a roof of an eight year old home. Downed trees and limbs were blocking county road 653. |
| June 2003 | Hail | Paw Paw | $25,000 | Seven eighths inch diameter hail was reported with a severe thunderstorm in Paw Paw, and a tree was blown down in Mattawan. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $20,000 | Several trees were blown down in Paw Paw. |
| May 2004 | Hail | Paw Paw | $15,000 | A trained spotter reported three quarters inch diameter hail with a severe thunderstorm five miles west of Paw Paw. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $15,000 | Tree limbs and power lines were downed in Paw Paw. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $10,000 | Severe thunderstorm wind gusts blew down four trees in Paw Paw and two trees three miles south of Lawton. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $2,500 | Scattered reports of trees and power lines down in Paw Paw Township. |
| August 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | $2,500 | Scattered reports of power lines downed in and around Paw Paw. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | - | Large trees down throughout Paw Paw. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | - | A few trees were blown down across portions of Van Buren county, primarily in the vicinity of Paw Paw. |
| September 2008 | Tornado (EF1) | Paw Paw | - | A tornado touched down just west of Paw Paw. Uprooted trees and broken limbs were found along with a twisted metal fence near a school. The tornado then moved into the southern section of the town of Paw Paw. Damage to a car dealership occurred when a section of metal roof was ripped off. A restaurant also sustained damage when trees were blown down. |
| August 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paw Paw | - | Trees blown down in city by thunderstorm winds. |
| April 1994 | Hail | Paw Paw | - | 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.
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 Paw Paw | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2154296 | 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 634488. 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.






