BlockBefore

Heron, Montana

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Thompson Falls-West End census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59844. It stands on Elk Creek. The Survey maps it on the Heron quadrangle. 173 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,251 feet above sea level.

Heron within Sanders County

Population over time

3 figures

Heron grew from 149 to 173 between 2000 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
2000149
2010282+133 (+89%)
2020173-109 (-39%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 14 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

55 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Heron between 1992 and 2020, burning about 658 acres in total. 28 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
Natural28
Debris and open burning10
Recreation and ceremony5
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Equipment and vehicle use2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
8 September 2014Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreKootenai National ForestMM7
4 September 2019Naturalunder an acreKootenai National ForestFORKED DEER
3 September 2005Naturalunder an acreKootenai National ForestNAPOLEON GULCH
3 September 2005Naturalunder an acreKootenai National ForestNAPOLEON #2
3 September 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCoeur d'Alene Field OfficeLONE CEDAR
24 September 2001Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreKootenai National ForestBIG EDDY
17 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreKootenai National Forest207
13 September 2017Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreKootenai National ForestCOAL

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Sanders County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Heron: 5 past producers, 2 occurrences, 2 prospects, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Copper, Gold, Lead, Lead, Silver, Zinc. 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
Amazon PropertyLead, ZincProspect
Blue Creek MineLead, Zinc, Silver, GoldPast Producer
Frederick and Wind GroupCopper, SilverPast Producer
Red Fir ClaimsCopper, SilverPast Producer
RyanGold, Copper, LeadUnknown
BrokenLead, Silver, ZincPast Producer
Gopher Hole MineGold, Lead, Silver, ZincPast Producer
Bee and Boo Claim GroupCopperOccurrence
UlleyCopperProspect
Unnamed LocationCopperOccurrence

Every working recorded in Sanders County

Storms near this place

1 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Heron in 1 storm report in 2006: 1 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
November 2006FloodHeron-County roads and private drives were flooded just off Highway 56 near Bull River.

Every storm recorded in Sanders 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
Cedar (historical)3.2 miles14
Smead (historical)5.9 miles14
Noxon10.3 miles12
Tuscor17.7 miles12
Larchwood22.6 miles12
Trout Creek24.4 miles13
Childs31.5 miles9
White Pine33.3 miles13

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 HeronAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q966608The 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 784801. 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.