Box, Oklahoma
20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1978. It stands in the Vian census division. It lies in ZIP code area 74962. The Survey maps it on the Blackgum quadrangle. 153 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 919 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBox fell from 224 to 153 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 | 224 | |
| 2020 | 153 | -71 (-32%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 20 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.
- 1898 USGS Tahlequah quadrangle1:125000
- 1901 USGS Tahlequah quadrangle1:125000, 8 printings
- 1905 USGS Tahlequah quadrangle1:125000
- 1946 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Blackgum quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1978 USGS Fort Smith quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1978 USGS Stilwell quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
361 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 361 fires within 5 miles of Box between 1992 and 2020, burning about 8,539 acres in total. 12 started naturally. 133 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 | 133 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 |
| Debris and open burning | 80 |
| Natural | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 10 |
| Smoking | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Other causes | 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 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | 2.0 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | not named |
| 8 September 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | 30546 |
| 7 September 2000 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | not named |
| 7 September 1998 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | not named |
| 6 September 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 4.0 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | 30462 |
| 30 September 2011 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | 30490 |
| 30 September 2002 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | not named |
| 28 September 2002 | Smoking | 3.0 acres | Oklahoma Division of Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
19 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Box in 19 storm reports between 1997 and 2022: 13 hail, 6 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 | Hail | Box | $15,000 | Ping pong ball size hail damaged vehicles and homes. |
| May 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box | $10,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind snapped eight power poles near the Black Gum Fire Department. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Box | $10,000 | no account filed |
| November 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box | $5,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind damaged a barn and snapped large tree limbs. |
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box | $5,000 | Strong thunderstorm wind damaged two trailer homes and blew down several trees. |
| April 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box | - | Thunderstorm wind gusted to around 60 mph. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 70 miles an hour blew own several trees. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box | - | Thunderstorm winds estimated at 70 miles an hour blew down several trees at Tenkiller State Park. |
| December 1999 | Hail | Box | - | Dime size hail fell on the southern end of Lake Tenkiller. |
| October 2022 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| October 2022 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| October 2022 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| April 2014 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| March 2013 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| December 2003 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| May 2003 | Hail | Box | - | no account filed |
| April 1997 | Hail | Box | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackgum | 2.1 miles | 20 | |
| Redbird Smith | 2.6 miles | 20 | |
| Evening Shade | 3.9 miles | 20 | |
| Linder Bend (historical) | 4.4 miles | 20 | |
| Vian | 5.7 miles | 16 | |
| Paradise Hill | 5.7 miles | 19 | |
| Pinhook Corner | 5.8 miles | 20 | |
| Aqua Park | 5.9 miles | 20 |
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 Box | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5672839 | 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 1100229. 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.








