Ben Franklin, Texas

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the Pecan Gap census division. It lies in ZIP code area 75415. The Survey maps it on the Pecan Gap quadrangle. It stands 486 feet above sea level.

Ben Franklin within Delta County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 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.

1953 USGS Texarkana quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1956 USGS Texarkana quadrangle1:250000
1964 USGS Pecan Gap quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1985 USGS Sulphur Springs quadrangle1:100000
1991 USGS Sulphur Springs quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

23 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Ben Franklin between 2006 and 2018, burning about 230 acres in total. None 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
Equipment and vehicle use	12
Debris and open burning	6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	5

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
3 August 2016	Equipment and vehicle use	8.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	2016133
2 August 2012	Debris and open burning	2.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	FM 128 & CR 3430
6 July 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	15 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	FM 128 GRASS FIRES
4 July 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	7/4/14 5694 FM 128 GRASS FIRE
21 July 2008	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
19 July 2011	Equipment and vehicle use	115 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	PUTZ FIRE
17 July 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	10 acres	Texas A & M Forest Service	not named
16 July 2018	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Texas A & M Forest Service	CR 3530 GRASS FIRE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Delta County

Storms near this place

9 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ben Franklin in 9 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 flash 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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
May 2024	Hail	Ben Franklin	$60,000	Spotter report of 2 inch hail in northern Delta County, along FM 128. This hail was wind-driven by 80 mph winds causing notable damage.
May 2022	Thunderstorm Wind	Ben Franklin	$20,000	A large tree snapped and fell on the end of a manufactured home, damaging the roof of the home.
May 1994	Thunderstorm Wind	Ben Franklin	$5,000	Trees were blown down by thunderstorm winds.
October 2001	Thunderstorm Wind	Ben Franklin	$2,000	A storage shed was unroofed by thunderstorm winds.
May 2024	Hail	Ben Franklin	-	Spotter reported quarter-sized hail in northern Delta County along FM 128.
July 2007	Flash Flood	Ben Franklin	-	FM 38 was flooded and closed near Rowdy Creek.
February 1996	Hail	Ben Franklin	-	no account filed
June 1996	Thunderstorm Wind	Ben Franklin	-	no account filed
May 1995	Thunderstorm Wind	Ben Franklin	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Delta 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Crossroads	4.0 miles	8
Rattan	4.3 miles	9
Pecan Gap	5.0 miles	9
Price	5.9 miles	8
Enloe	6.6 miles	8
Antioch	7.0 miles	9
Mount Joy	7.8 miles	8
Jot-Em-Down	8.0 miles	9

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 Ben Franklin	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4885668	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 1351867. 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.