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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.

De Kalb within Buchanan County

Population over time

2 figures

De 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.

YearPeople Change
2010220
2020233+13 (+6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 19 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.

What happened here

An account from the chapter on Bloomington township. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.

From The 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 - Bloomington Township

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.

Read the rest of this passage

In the county-history sources

9,599 words on this township

The 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 1997

Regional 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/undetermined9
Debris and open burning8
Smoking3
Equipment and vehicle use1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
20 August 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined500 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
19 August 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
27 July 1999Railroad operations and maintenance2.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
15 June 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
19 April 1997Debris and open burning1.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
12 April 2014Debris and open burning40 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
9 March 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named
5 March 2002Debris and open burning1.0 acresMissouri Department of Conservationnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Buchanan County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 16 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Fanning QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Franks QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Mathews QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Spencer #1 QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Spencer #2 QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Steele QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Teaney-Brumley QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
UnknownStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
UnknownStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
UnknownStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Buchanan County

Storms near this place

17 since 1995

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1998Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb$50,000The 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 2025Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb-Downed tree limbs and wires near Route JJ north of De Kalb.
April 2023HailDe Kalb-Quarter sized hail fell near De Kalb.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb-Trees downed across De Kalb.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb-Winds estimated about 60 mph from Fire Department.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb-Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated up to 60 mph. Branches were reported down along with a brief power outage.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb-Trees downed in town due to strong thunderstorm winds.
August 2006Thunderstorm WindDe Kalb-Large tree limbs down.
October 2005Flash FloodDe Kalb-Heavy rains caused several streets to be flooded.
May 2004Tornado (F3)De Kalb-Large tornado entered Buchanan county just northwest of Dearborn or 7 miles southeast of Dekalb. It stayed over rural areas.
May 2019HailDe Kalb-no account filed
June 2015HailDe Kalb-no account filed
May 2008HailDe Kalb-no account filed
April 2005HailDe Kalb-no account filed
October 2005HailDe Kalb-no account filed
May 2004HailDe Kalb-no account filed
April 1995HailDe Kalb-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Buchanan 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
Halls4.1 miles18
Mock Corner4.1 miles19
Kenmoor4.5 miles18
Wallace4.7 miles18
Taos4.8 miles18
Rushville5.3 miles32
Halleck5.6 miles18
Sparta6.6 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 De KalbAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q924680The 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.