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.
Population over time
2 figuresBlackwell 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 311 | |
| 2020 | 258 | -53 (-17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 13 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.
- 1893 USGS Sweetwater quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Big Spring quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Big Spring quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Blackwell quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Sweetwater quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
32 since 2006Regional 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/undetermined | 16 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 40 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | not named |
| 1 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | LAKE DAM ROAD |
| 13 August 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | MOONSHINES RV |
| 12 August 2012 | Natural | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | CECIL SMITH FIRE |
| 4 July 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | BROTHER ENGLISH ROAD |
| 4 July 2013 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | JULY 4TH LAKE FIRE |
| 3 July 2019 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | DIAMOND PLATE |
| 22 July 2012 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | WHEAT CIRCLE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mcfarlane and Moore Prospect | Strontium | Occurrence | Celestite | |
| Whitesides Jr. Occurrence | Strontium | Occurrence | Celestite |
Storms near this place
32 since 1993Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwell | $1,000,000 | An 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 2000 | Lightning | Blackwell | $8,500 | Lightning struck an oil field tank battery shortly after midnight, causing two of the tanks to catch fire. |
| May 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwell | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwell | $4,000 | Large tree limbs were blown down. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwell | $3,000 | Roof was blown off of a mobile home. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Blackwell | - | Public reported quarter size hail. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Blackwell | - | Public reported hen egg size hail. |
| May 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwell | - | Public reported a 72 mph wind gust. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Blackwell | - | Law enforcement reported golf ball size hail. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blackwell | - | The public reported thunderstorm wind gusts near 60 mph and some tree limbs were broken. |
| September 2018 | Flash Flood | Blackwell | - | 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 2003 | Tornado (F0) | Blackwell | - | Amateur radio spotter reported a brief tornado west of Blackwell. |
| June 2003 | Flash Flood | Blackwell | - | Numerous roads flooded around Oak Creek Lake. |
| May 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Blackwell | - | Law enforcement reported a brief tornado. |
| September 2001 | Hail | Blackwell | - | Hail up to the size of golf balls was reported just east of Blackwell in extreme southeast Nolan County. |
| May 2017 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| May 1997 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| September 1995 | Hail | Blackwell | - | no account filed |
| August 1993 | Hail | Blackwell | - | 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.
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 Blackwell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q969903 | 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 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.




