BlockBefore

Buchanan Dam, Texas

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Llano North census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78609. The Survey maps it on the Kingsland quadrangle. 1,508 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,043 feet above sea level.

Buchanan Dam within Llano County

Population over time

3 figures

Buchanan Dam fell from 1,688 to 1,508 between 2000 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
20001,688
20101,519-169 (-10%)
20201,508-11 (-1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

13 surveys from 20 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

122 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 122 fires within 5 miles of Buchanan Dam between 2003 and 2020, burning about 2,103 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 7 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 burning64
Missing data/not specified/undetermined26
Equipment and vehicle use8
Smoking7
Arson/incendiarism7
Recreation and ceremony4
Power generation/transmission/distribution3
Natural2
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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 2012Arson/incendiarismunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceSLAB FIRE
29 September 2006Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
28 September 2011Natural2.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServicePARK RD 4 (11-0116)
25 September 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceELLEN WILLIAMS TRACTOR FIRE
20 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest Service16-027513
15 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceHWY 29 (16-0117)
14 September 2006Debris and open burning1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
11 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceS CHAPARRAL (16-0115)

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Llano County

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Buchanan Dam: 4 producers, 3 past producers, 1 occurrence, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, REE, Vermiculite, Stone, Dimension. 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
Badu Hill MineFeldspar, REEPast Producer1936
Baringer Hill MineREE, Feldspar, Fluorine-Fluorite, Zirconium, Beryllium, Lead, Uranium, Titanium, Metal, Thorium, Molybdenum, Lithium, Rubidium, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Copper, ZincPast Producer1887
Road Material PitsSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Rose QuarryStone, DimensionProducerGranite
Cactus Canyon Llano QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
FriedsomVermiculiteUnknown
Premier Rose QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Rare-Earth MineREEPast ProducerGadolinite
Reed ProspectVermiculiteOccurrenceResidual

Every working recorded in Llano County

Storms near this place

14 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buchanan Dam in 14 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 10 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2003Thunderstorm WindBuchanan Dam$50,000Severe thunderstorms winds estimated at 60 knots blew down power lines in eastern Llano County.
October 2012Thunderstorm WindBuchanan Dam$5,000A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 58 mph that blew over a large shed near Lake Buchanan.
May 2025HailBuchanan Dam-A thunderstorm produced half dollar size hail near Buchanan Dam.
May 2025HailBuchanan Dam-A thunderstorm produced tennis ball size hail near Buchanan Dam.
May 2023HailBuchanan Dam-A thunderstorm produced quarter size hail near Buchanan Dam.
January 2020HailBuchanan Dam-A thunderstorm produced quarter size hail near Buchanan Dam.
August 2017Flash FloodBuchanan Dam-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding closing a low water crossing near Inks Lake State Park.
February 2013HailBuchanan Dam-A thunderstorm produced hail for 11 minutes. The largest hail was 1.5 inches in diameter.
September 2008Tornado (EF0)Buchanan Dam-The Llano County sheriff's office and the Lower Colorado River Authority police department reported a water spout over Lake Buchanan in the vicinity of Buchanan Dam. The water spout was short lived and dissipated before reaching land.
May 2023HailBuchanan Dam-no account filed
May 2008HailBuchanan Dam-no account filed
May 2008HailBuchanan Dam-no account filed
April 2005HailBuchanan Dam-no account filed
February 2004HailBuchanan Dam-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Llano 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
Lakeside Heights3.7 miles20
Golden Beach4.7 miles18
Kingsland5.7 miles20
Bluffton6.4 miles18
Gainesville6.4 miles15
Stolz7.1 miles16
Buchanan Lake Village7.7 miles18
Lone Grove9.2 miles16

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 Buchanan DamAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q977725The 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 1353114. 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.