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Blackwell, Texas

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1893 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Blackwell-Nolan census division. It lies in ZIP code area 79506. It stands on North Branch Oak Creek. The Survey maps it on the Blackwell quadrangle. 258 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,126 feet above sea level.

Blackwell within Nolan County

Population over time

2 figures

Blackwell fell from 311 to 258 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
2010311
2020258-53 (-17%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 13 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

32 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 32 fires within 5 miles of Blackwell between 2006 and 2020, burning about 856 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 1 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Natural5
Debris and open burning5
Equipment and vehicle use5
Arson/incendiarism1

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
6 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined40 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
1 September 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceLAKE DAM ROAD
13 August 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceMOONSHINES RV
12 August 2012Natural20 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceCECIL SMITH FIRE
4 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceBROTHER ENGLISH ROAD
4 July 2013Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceJULY 4TH LAKE FIRE
3 July 2019Natural1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceDIAMOND PLATE
22 July 2012Natural1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceWHEAT CIRCLE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Nolan County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Blackwell: 2 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Strontium. 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
Mcfarlane and Moore ProspectStrontiumOccurrenceCelestite
Whitesides Jr. OccurrenceStrontiumOccurrenceCelestite

Every working recorded in Nolan County

Storms near this place

32 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blackwell in 32 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 21 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 1997Thunderstorm WindBlackwell$1,000,000An intense swift moving thunderstorm from the Conco Valley to the Big Country, packing wind gusts to near 90 mph, the night of the 12th wreaked most of its havoc on the community of Blackwell. The storm felled large trees, damaged roofs, and destroyed at least one trailer home. No one was seriously injured in the storm, though one woman broke her ankle while entering a storm cellar at her home.
March 2000LightningBlackwell$8,500Lightning struck an oil field tank battery shortly after midnight, causing two of the tanks to catch fire.
May 1994Thunderstorm WindBlackwell$5,000no account filed
August 2003Thunderstorm WindBlackwell$4,000Large tree limbs were blown down.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindBlackwell$3,000Roof was blown off of a mobile home.
May 2025HailBlackwell-Public reported quarter size hail.
May 2024HailBlackwell-Public reported hen egg size hail.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindBlackwell-Public reported a 72 mph wind gust.
May 2024HailBlackwell-Law enforcement reported golf ball size hail.
May 2019Thunderstorm WindBlackwell-The public reported thunderstorm wind gusts near 60 mph and some tree limbs were broken.
September 2018Flash FloodBlackwell-Highway 1170 about 2 miles west of Blackwell was closed due to flooding. Water was also over the road east of Blackwell and also along Texas Highway 153 near Country Road 263.
April 2003Tornado (F0)Blackwell-Amateur radio spotter reported a brief tornado west of Blackwell.
June 2003Flash FloodBlackwell-Numerous roads flooded around Oak Creek Lake.
May 2002Tornado (F0)Blackwell-Law enforcement reported a brief tornado.
September 2001HailBlackwell-Hail up to the size of golf balls was reported just east of Blackwell in extreme southeast Nolan County.
May 2017HailBlackwell-no account filed
April 2011HailBlackwell-no account filed
June 2011HailBlackwell-no account filed
June 2007HailBlackwell-no account filed
May 2006HailBlackwell-no account filed
May 2005HailBlackwell-no account filed
April 2003HailBlackwell-no account filed
April 2003HailBlackwell-no account filed
April 2003HailBlackwell-no account filed
April 2002HailBlackwell-no account filed
June 1999HailBlackwell-no account filed
June 1997HailBlackwell-no account filed
May 1997HailBlackwell-no account filed
May 1996HailBlackwell-no account filed
June 1996HailBlackwell-no account filed
September 1995HailBlackwell-no account filed
August 1993HailBlackwell-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Nolan 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
Hylton6.7 miles12
Maryneal12.4 miles12
Nolan13.5 miles14
Shaufler22.7 miles13
Champion24.7 miles8
Toland26.6 miles14
Grimes26.7 miles14
Avenger Village26.7 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 BlackwellAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q969903The 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 1330815. 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.