Bell City, Missouri
18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1987. It stands in Pike Township. It lies in ZIP code area 63735. The Survey maps it on the Bell City quadrangle. 464 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 328 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBell City grew from 448 to 464 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 | 448 | |
| 2020 | 464 | +16 (+4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 18 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.
- 1934 USGS Advance quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1939 USGS Advance quadrangle1:62500
- 1949 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1950 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Bell City quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1964 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Cape Girardeau quadrangle1:100000
- 1986 USGS Cape Girardeau quadrangle1:100000
- 1987 USGS Paducah quadrangle1:250000
Fires near this place
2 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Bell City between 2018 and 2019, burning about 1 acre in total. None 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 | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 April 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 178438-10393-04032019-2015 |
| 10 December 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Missouri Department of Conservation | 178034-10393-12102018-1920 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 18 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Bell City: 18 past producers. None of them still produces. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borrow Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
11 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bell City in 11 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 funnel cloud, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 2012 | Tornado (EF1) | Bell City | $150,000 | Empty grain bins and silos were destroyed. Irrigation pivots were turned over. Chicken houses were destroyed. There was siding and shingle damage to homes. Barns were damaged. Peak winds were estimated near 90 mph. The tornado path crossed into Scott County along Route 91 near the Whitewater River bridge. |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bell City | $50,000 | A thunderstorm line moving eastward across northern Stoddard County produced a downburst that destroyed a barn and an irrigation system northeast of Bell City. |
| March 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bell City | $20,000 | Damaging winds struck parts of northern Stoddard County. Near Bell City, a house sustained shingle damage, and pieces of aluminum siding were wrapped around tree branches. At Painton, an attached garage sustained roof damage. |
| September 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bell City | $15,000 | Numerous trees were blown down. |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bell City | $500 | Numerous large trees were blown down or uprooted across northern parts of the county. |
| May 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bell City | - | Wind gusts were estimated to be at least 60 mph. |
| April 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Bell City | - | The funnel cloud, which was reportedly almost touching ground, may have been a gustnado observed by a trained spotter along the leading edge of a line of thunderstorms as it crossed U.S. Route 60 near Grayridge. |
| June 2019 | Funnel Cloud | Bell City | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | Bell City | - | no account filed |
| October 2005 | Hail | Bell City | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Bell City | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heagy | 1.4 miles | 18 | |
| Ardeola | 2.3 miles | 18 | |
| Messler | 3.1 miles | 18 | |
| Tillman | 3.2 miles | 18 | |
| Durnell | 3.8 miles | 13 | |
| Shady Dell | 4.1 miles | 13 | |
| Painton | 4.3 miles | 18 | |
| Toppertown | 4.3 miles | 13 |
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 Bell City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q642084 | 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 713906. 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.










