Big Arm, Montana
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Flathead Reservation census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59910. The Survey maps it on the Elmo quadrangle. 218 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,953 feet above sea level.
On record in Big Arm
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 1 record
Big Arm Schoollisted 2007
Population over time
2 figuresBig Arm grew from 177 to 218 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 | 177 | |
| 2020 | 218 | +41 (+23%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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 Flathead Lake quadrangle1:125000
- 1956 USGS Wallace quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Wallace quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Elmo quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Polson quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS Elmo quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
195 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 195 fires within 5 miles of Big Arm between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,639 acres in total. 42 started naturally. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 97 |
| Natural | 42 |
| Debris and open burning | 16 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Fireworks | 7 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | J-2000#3 |
| 8 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | J-2000#2 |
| 6 September 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | JETTE 9 |
| 5 September 2016 | Natural | under an acre | Flathead Agency | JETTE KNOB |
| 4 September 2001 | Fireworks | 1.0 acres | Flathead Agency | BIGARM |
| 26 September 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | JETTE#10 |
| 23 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | JETTE 174 |
| 20 September 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | JETTE 9 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Big Arm: 4 occurrences, 3 unknowns, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver, Copper, Lead, Silver. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Cliff Mine | Lead, Silver | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Chief Cliff Mine | Lead, Silver | Occurrence | ||
| Silverstone Mine | Copper, Lead, Zinc, Silver | Occurrence | Vein | |
| Unnamed Building Stone | Stone, Dimension | Occurrence | ||
| Unnamed Prospect | Copper, Silver | Prospect | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
5 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Big Arm in 5 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 4 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Big Arm | $10,000 | Numerous tree damage led to power outages and blocked roadways. Damage was noted on both sides of Flathead Lake, but damage was most concentrated near Polson, Dayton, and Finley Point. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Big Arm | - | A photo on social media showed several hailstones that were a little larger than a quarter. Also hail was reported to have accumulated several inches in the storm's path. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Big Arm | - | The public measured 1.00 inch hail that covered the ground. |
| August 2004 | Hail | Big Arm | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Big Arm | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snowberg Court | 0.1 miles | 9 | |
| Lindisfarne | 3.6 miles | 7 | |
| Elmo | 3.7 miles | 9 | |
| Dayton | 4.8 miles | 9 | |
| Proctor | 6.5 miles | 9 | |
| Rocky Point | 7.5 miles | 7 | |
| Jette | 7.8 miles | 7 | |
| Kings Point | 7.9 miles | 7 |
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 Big Arm | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q957686 | 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 768742. 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.





