De Kalb, Missouri
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1927 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Bloomington Township. It lies in ZIP code area 64440. The Survey maps it on the De Kalb quadrangle. 233 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,145 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDe Kalb grew from 220 to 233 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 | 220 | |
| 2020 | 233 | +13 (+6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 19 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.
- 1927 USGS Dearborn quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1950 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000
- 1951 USGS De Kalb quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1960 USGS Kansas City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1961 USGS De Kalb quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS De Kalb quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Saint Joseph quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Bloomington township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
Jasper Wilson
farmer, section 14, postoffice DeKalb. His father, James, was a native of North Carolina, and was one of the early pioneers of this county, and was murdered at the beginning of the war in 1861. His mother, Priscilla (Moore), was a native of Tennessee. Jasper was born in Orange County, Indiana, April 8, 1822, and when thirteen years of age' his parents moved to Will County, Illinois, and in the fall of 1837 moved to Buchanan County, Missouri, where he has since resided.
In the county-history sources
9,599 words on this townshipThe History of Buchanan County, Missouri : Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, Etc., Biographical Sketches of Its Citizens, Buchanan County in the Late War, General and Local Statisics, Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men, History of Missouri, Map of Buchanan County, Etc., Etc, published 1881; History of Buchanan County and the City of St. Joseph and Representative Citizens : 1826 to 1904, published 1904 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Bloomington Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Bloomington Township - 9,599 words.
Fires near this place
22 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of De Kalb between 1997 and 2020, burning about 766 acres 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 | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 August 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 500 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 19 August 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 27 July 1999 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 2.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 15 June 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 19 April 1997 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 12 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 9 March 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 15 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
| 5 March 2002 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Missouri Department of Conservation | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 16 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 16 workings within 5 miles of De Kalb: 15 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fanning Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Franks Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Mathews Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Spencer #1 Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Spencer #2 Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Steele Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Teaney-Brumley Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
17 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names De Kalb in 17 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 8 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | $50,000 | The Buchanan County Sheriff's Office reported damage to the roof of a school in De Kalb as a result of severe thunderstorm winds. Thunderstorm winds also blew a semi tractor trailer off the road along Highway 59 in South St. Joseph. There was also the report of structural damage to a home in South St. Joseph as a result of the strong winds. St. Joseph Power and Light reported that four main transmission line structures were destroyed in the storm resulting in a power loss for many customers for over 24 hours. Two barns were destroyed between De Kalb and Taos, and several other outbuildings were damaged. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | - | Downed tree limbs and wires near Route JJ north of De Kalb. |
| April 2023 | Hail | De Kalb | - | Quarter sized hail fell near De Kalb. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | - | Trees downed across De Kalb. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | - | Winds estimated about 60 mph from Fire Department. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 60 mph. Branches were reported down along with a brief power outage. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | - | Trees downed in town due to strong thunderstorm winds. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | De Kalb | - | Large tree limbs down. |
| October 2005 | Flash Flood | De Kalb | - | Heavy rains caused several streets to be flooded. |
| May 2004 | Tornado (F3) | De Kalb | - | Large tornado entered Buchanan county just northwest of Dearborn or 7 miles southeast of Dekalb. It stayed over rural areas. |
| May 2019 | Hail | De Kalb | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Hail | De Kalb | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | De Kalb | - | no account filed |
| April 2005 | Hail | De Kalb | - | no account filed |
| October 2005 | Hail | De Kalb | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | De Kalb | - | no account filed |
| April 1995 | Hail | De Kalb | - | 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 De Kalb | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q924680 | 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 730083. 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.








