Fortescue, Missouri
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Minton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 64437. The Survey maps it on the Big Lake quadrangle. 21 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 860 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresFortescue fell from 32 to 21 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 | 32 | |
| 2020 | 21 | -11 (-34%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 13 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.
- 1920 USGS Craig quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1955 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Nebraska City quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Big Lake quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Falls City quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
2,701 words on this townshipHistory of Holt County, Missouri : from the Time of the Platte Purchase to the End of the Year 1916 : Preceded by a Short History of Missouri : Supplemented by Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens, published 1917 names this settlement in its chapter on Minton Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The land on which the town of Fortescue was built was originally owned by Bailey M. Beasley on the south side of the railroad track and by James Stuart on the north side. Dr. J. L. Minton also owned some of the land comprising the townsite. Beasley's holdings were bought by Jacob Book, now a resident of Mound City, who laid out the town in April, 1890. The plat was filed August 8, 1890. John R. Minton filed the plat of an addition to the town May 8, 1904.
Passage source: History of Holt County, Missouri : from the Time of the Platte Purchase to the End of the Year 1916 : Preceded by a Short History of Missouri : Supplemented by Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens, published 1917.
Fortescue school district, as now known, was in the territory composed of the east side of Walker, all of Lake Shore, southern part of Elm Grove and the northern part of Idlewilde. The present brick structure was erected in 1907, and it became a special school district in April, 1910.
Passage source: History of Holt County, Missouri : from the Time of the Platte Purchase to the End of the Year 1916 : Preceded by a Short History of Missouri : Supplemented by Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens, published 1917.
On April 12, 1915, the proposition to consolidate the Fortescue, Walker, Elm Grove, Walnut Grove and Idlewilde districts into a rural high school, was submitted to the voters. The proposition carried by a decisive vote and bonds amounting to $15,000 were issued for the purchase of ground and the erection of a high school building.
Passage source: History of Holt County, Missouri : from the Time of the Platte Purchase to the End of the Year 1916 : Preceded by a Short History of Missouri : Supplemented by Biographical Sketches of Prominent Citizens, published 1917.
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 Minton Township - it names this place 6 more 6 times.
Fires near this place
8 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Fortescue between 1995 and 2011, burning about 1,018 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were 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 |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 April 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | WEST RAILROAD GRADE PRIVATE LAND |
| 5 March 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 90 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | DERRGAMMA |
| 31 March 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | SQUAW CREEK RAILROAD GRADE |
| 17 March 1995 | Debris and open burning | 600 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | LOWERCGWF |
| 11 March 2000 | Smoking | 265 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | NMALLARDMA |
| 24 February 1996 | Debris and open burning | 40 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | SBLUFFPOOL |
| 21 February 2011 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 5.0 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | PINTAIL |
| 14 February 1999 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge | SOUTH BLUF |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
11 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fortescue in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flood, 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 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fortescue | $75,000 | Two trailers were destroyed, and a tree fell on top of a vacation cabin near Big Lake State Park. |
| October 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fortescue | - | Social media report and photos of downed power poles and wires between Craig and Big Lake. |
| April 2019 | Flood | Fortescue | - | Ongoing flooding along the Missouri River continued through the month of April and into May. Several roads were closed near the banks of the Missouri River. This flooding began in mid March and due to upstream releases and continued periods of heavy rain the flooding continued into May. Monetary damages are unknown despite the entry indicating 0 dollars of damages. |
| June 2019 | Flood | Fortescue | - | Heavy spring rains caused ongoing flooding along the Missouri River to Continue through the month. Some locations along the Missouri River experienced major flooding at times during the month. Damage estimates from roads washed out and crop damage are unknown at this time. |
| May 2018 | Tornado (EF0) | Fortescue | - | A tornado formed just west of Big Lake and did damage to docks and boats, and knocked over some camper trailers at the lake. Four miles away from the lake, an Emergency Manager reported that he had a 60' by 90' pole barn destroyed. |
| May 2007 | Flash Flood | Fortescue | - | Water was hubcap deep on Highway 111...one half mile south of Highway 159. |
| March 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fortescue | - | Trees reported down. |
| February 1998 | Hail | Fortescue | - | Storm spotters reported dime-size hail from severe thunderstorms over Holt County 3 miles west of Fortescue and 4 miles northwest of Mound City. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Fortescue | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Fortescue | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Fortescue | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Lake | 2.7 miles | 13 | |
| Napier | 3.2 miles | 13 | |
| Bigelow | 4.3 miles | 13 | |
| Mound City | 7.1 miles | 11 | |
| Forest City | 8.2 miles | 23 | |
| Craig | 10.2 miles | 13 | |
| Oregon | 10.2 miles | 23 | |
| Curzon | 11.7 miles | 23 |
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 Fortescue | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q968894 | 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 718111. 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.
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.





