BlockBefore

Rainier, Oregon

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1921 and the latest in 1990. It stands in the Rainier census division. It lies in ZIP code area 97048. It stands on Fox Creek. The Survey maps it on the Rainier quadrangle. 1,911 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 51 feet above sea level.

Rainier within Columbia County

On record in Rainier

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 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Rainier grew from 1,895 to 1,911 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
20101,895
20201,911+16 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 12 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

99 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 99 fires within 5 miles of Rainier between 1992 and 2020, burning about 181 acres in total. None started naturally. 5 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
Debris and open burning30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined20
Recreation and ceremony10
Equipment and vehicle use8
Other causes8
Power generation/transmission/distribution6
Arson/incendiarism5
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Smoking4
Fireworks2
Railroad operations and maintenance2

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 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersMILL STREET
6 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersOWL CREEK
4 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersMILE POST 35
4 September 1992Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreColumbia City UnitPELLHAM HILL RD.
3 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.2 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersCOTTONWOOD POINT FIRE
3 September 1997Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
28 September 2016Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreOregon Department of Forestry Salem HeadquartersHARBOR VIEW DR. #1
26 September 1999Debris and open burning1.0 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Columbia County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 37 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 37 workings within 5 miles of Rainier: 24 past producers, 9 producers, 2 occurrences, 1 unknown. 10 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone, Aluminum, Iron, Titanium, Metal. 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
(Facility) Longview Aluminum SmelterAluminum, Contained or MetalPlant
Bauxite Kalama-RainerAluminum, Iron, Titanium, MetalOccurrence
Kalama-Ranier Bauxite OccurrenceAluminumOccurrence
Mount 5640 QuarryStone, DimensionPast Producer
C ZimmermannStonePast Producer
Columbia West Materials & ConstStonePast Producer
Just-A-Mere Farm IncStonePast Producer
Just-A-Mere Farm IncStonePast Producer
Pete MatiacoStonePast Producer
PetersonStonePast Producer

Every working recorded in Columbia County

Storms near this place

2 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rainier in 2 storm reports between 2004 and 2019: 1 tornado, 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
February 2019FloodRainier$30,000Several structures impacted from flooding along Fox Creek in the city of Rainier, Oregon. Eventual cause may have been a blocked culvert. U.S. Highway 30 was closed at times.
June 2004Tornado (F0)Rainier-Cowlitz county, Washington dispatch received several reports of a tornado that touched down on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, about 3 miles southeast of Rainier, crossed the river to the mouth of the Kalama River as a waterspout, and moved onshore on the Washington side as a tornado.

Every storm recorded in Columbia 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
Lindbergh1.9 miles12
Beaver Springs3.0 miles12
Prescott3.8 miles12
Hudson (historical)4.3 miles15
Beaver Homes5.8 miles12
Alston5.9 miles15
Goble6.0 miles12
Reuben6.4 miles12

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 RainierAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q594515The 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 1125788. 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.