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Blackwater, Missouri

17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1888 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Blackwater Township. It lies in ZIP code area 65322. It stands on Flat Creek. The Survey maps it on the Pilot Grove North quadrangle. 170 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 630 feet above sea level.

Blackwater within Cooper County

On record in Blackwater

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

Population over time

2 figures

Blackwater grew from 162 to 170 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
2010162
2020170+8 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 17 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.

In the county-history sources

322 words on this township

A History of Cooper County, Missouri, from the First Visit by White Men in February, 1804, to the Fifth Day of July, 1876, published 1876 names this settlement in its chapter on Blackwater Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

This township is a peninsular, being almost entirely surrounded by the Lamine and Blackwater rivers. The soil is rich and exceedingly productive. The bottom land is low and swampy, and the ridge land fertile and susceptible of early cultivation. In the bottom, corn and timothy are grown in large quantities ; on the ridge land, corn, wheat, oats, tobacco, potatoes, and all kinds of garden vegetables are produced in great abundance. The different kinds of wood are ash, beach, black oak, black walnut, cherry, cottonw®od, elm, maple, hickory, redbud, sugar tree, white oak, and white walnut.

Passage source: A History of Cooper County, Missouri, from the First Visit by White Men in February, 1804, to the Fifth Day of July, 1876, published 1876.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Blackwater Township.

Fires near this place

18 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Blackwater between 2001 and 2020, burning about 85 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 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/undetermined6
Debris and open burning6
Recreation and ceremony2
Arson/incendiarism1
Smoking1
Equipment and vehicle use1
Natural1

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
2 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation177773-02729-09022018-0230
25 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation177774-02729-08252018-0247
23 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation177775-02729-08232018-0820
11 July 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation177776-02729-07112018-1050
9 April 2001Arson/incendiarism20 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
22 April 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation179318-02729-04222019-1445
21 April 2019Debris and open burningunder an acreMissouri Department of Conservation179320-02729-04212019-0835
20 April 2018Debris and open burning2.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservation177777-02729-04202018-1215

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cooper County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 21 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 21 workings within 5 miles of Blackwater: 19 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Barium-Barite, Barium-Barite, Lead, Zinc, Barium-Barite, Lead. 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
Scott MineLeadPast Producer
Unknown - Lead ZincLead, ZincPast Producer
Unknown - S+GSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Blackeagle Mine & PlantBarium-BariteProducer
Collins DiggingsBarium-Barite, Lead, ZincPast Producer
Marmaduke DiggingsBarium-Barite, Lead, ZincPast Producer
Mccauley-WidelBarium-Barite, LeadProducer1834, 1836
Poindexter MineBarium-Barite, LeadPast Producer
Unknown - BariteBarium-BaritePast Producer
Blackwater QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cooper County

Storms near this place

12 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blackwater in 12 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 6 hail, 2 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2006Tornado (F0)Blackwater$5,000F0 tornado crossed from Pettis county into Cooper county at 1604 CST...3 miles south-southwest of Blackwater. The tornado moved northeast over rural areas...and dissipated 4 miles east-northeast of Blackwater at 1617 CST. The tornado crossed Interstate 70 near mile marker 88 and blew over a tractor trailer. This closed the west bound lanes of I-70 for a time.
April 1993HailBlackwater$5,000no account filed
June 2025Thunderstorm WindBlackwater-Downed tree limbs and wires in the Blackwater area.
September 2025Thunderstorm WindBlackwater-Power pole downed north of Blackwater.
March 2023HailBlackwater-A supercell produced 1.25 hail in Blackwater in northwestern Cooper County.
March 2023HailBlackwater-A supercell produced 1 hail in just east of Nelson in northwestern Cooper County.
December 2015FloodBlackwater-Several intersections across Cooper County were closed due to minor flooding. Route Z southbound 7 miles northwest of Pilot Grove was closed. Route NN 5 miles west of Pilot Grove was closed. And Route HH near Pilot Grove was closed.
June 2009Flash FloodBlackwater-Water is covering area roads.
June 2007Flash FloodBlackwater-Flash flooding was reported on area roads.
April 2006HailBlackwater-no account filed
April 2006HailBlackwater-no account filed
April 2001HailBlackwater-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cooper 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
Corioli (historical)5.3 miles17
Chouteau Springs6.4 miles17
Shackleford Crossing6.5 miles18
Lamine6.6 miles18
Pilot Grove8.4 miles18
Hoffman9.7 miles18
Harriston10.3 miles18
Billingsville11.7 miles18

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 BlackwaterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q952998The 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 714334. 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.