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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.

Big Arm within Lake County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Big 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.

YearPeople Change
2010177
2020218+41 (+23%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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.

Fires near this place

195 since 1992

Regional 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 ceremony97
Natural42
Debris and open burning16
Equipment and vehicle use11
Arson/incendiarism10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Fireworks7
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Other causes1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
9 September 2012Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyJ-2000#3
8 September 2012Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyJ-2000#2
6 September 2008Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyJETTE 9
5 September 2016Naturalunder an acreFlathead AgencyJETTE KNOB
4 September 2001Fireworks1.0 acresFlathead AgencyBIGARM
26 September 2009Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyJETTE#10
23 September 2012Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyJETTE 174
20 September 2009Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyJETTE 9

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake County

Mines and quarries near this place

8 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Chief Cliff MineLead, SilverOccurrenceVein
Chief Cliff MineLead, SilverOccurrence
Silverstone MineCopper, Lead, Zinc, SilverOccurrenceVein
Unnamed Building StoneStone, DimensionOccurrence
Unnamed ProspectCopper, SilverProspect
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Lake County

Storms near this place

5 since 1998

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2020Thunderstorm WindBig Arm$10,000Numerous 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 2020HailBig 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 2011HailBig Arm-The public measured 1.00 inch hail that covered the ground.
August 2004HailBig Arm-no account filed
July 1998HailBig Arm-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake 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
Snowberg Court0.1 miles9
Lindisfarne3.6 miles7
Elmo3.7 miles9
Dayton4.8 miles9
Proctor6.5 miles9
Rocky Point7.5 miles7
Jette7.8 miles7
Kings Point7.9 miles7

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 ArmAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q957686The 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.