BlockBefore

Sparta, Michigan

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Sparta Township. It lies in ZIP code area 49345. It stands on Nash Creek. The Survey maps it on the Sparta quadrangle. 4,244 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 797 feet above sea level.

Sparta within Kent County

Population over time

2 figures

Sparta grew from 4,140 to 4,244 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
20104,140
20204,244+104 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 15 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

34 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 34 fires within 5 miles of Sparta between 2018 and 2020, burning about 40 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
Equipment and vehicle use23
Missing data/not specified/undetermined6
Recreation and ceremony3
Natural2

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
1 August 2019Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesALGOMA TOWNSHIP FD 488 - 2019
4 July 2020Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesSPARTA FD 444 - 2020
29 July 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesSPARTA FD 520 - 2019
28 July 2020Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesSPARTA FD 490 - 2020
13 July 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesKENT CITY-TYRONE TWP FD 0000197 - 2018
17 June 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesALGOMA TOWNSHIP FD 8061702 - 2018
15 June 2019Recreation and ceremony1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesALGOMA TOWNSHIP FD 393 - 2019
14 June 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMichigan Department of Natural ResourcesSPARTA FD 412 - 2019

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kent County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Sparta: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Fire Clay (Refractory), 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Clay Manufacturing Co Clay PitFire Clay (Refractory)Past Producer
Contractors Sand & Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Kent County

Storms near this place

12 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sparta in 12 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1993Thunderstorm WindSparta$50,000Thunderstorm winds struck a fruit orchard and blew 1,600 fruit boxes onto a van, two portable toilets, and a tractor house. A lot of fruit was blown off the trees, and a few fruit trees 6 to 8 inches in diameter were broken off. The area of damage was elongated in a southwest-northeast direction and was about 1.25 mile long. Witnesses said it might have been a tornado, but this could not be confirmed.
August 2000Thunderstorm WindSparta$25,000no account filed
April 2015Thunderstorm WindSparta$15,000Several trees were uprooted and snapped and the roof was blown off a storage shed near Sparta.
October 2007Thunderstorm WindSparta$10,000A few trees were blown down by wind gusts estimated at 60 mph.
July 2004HailSparta$10,000Three quarters inch diameter hail was reported three miles southwest of Sparta. A wind gust to 60 m.p.h. was reported two miles southwest of Comstock Park.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindSparta$5,000Several small trees downed near Indian Lakes in Algoma Township.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindSparta$1,000Trees reported downed in Sparta.
April 2014HailSparta-An inch to inch and a half diameter hail was reported in and near Sparta.
February 1999Thunderstorm WindSparta-A 58 mile per hour wind gust was reported in Sparta.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindSparta-Trained weather spotter measured a 92-mph wind gust with local anemometer near the intersection of Peach Ridge Road and 10-Mile Road in Alpine Township.
May 1998Thunderstorm WindSparta-Official NWS Cooperative Observer measured an 85-mph wind gust as derecho reached Sparta.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindSparta-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kent 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
Ballards Corners3.0 miles16
Englishville3.2 miles16
Lisbon4.3 miles13
Fruit Ridge Center4.3 miles14
Kent City4.6 miles13
Alpine6.2 miles16
Casnovia6.6 miles13
Edgerton7.6 miles15

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 SpartaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2078520The 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 638470. 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.