Harper, Texas
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Harper census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78631. It lies near Rogers Draw. The Survey maps it on the Harper East quadrangle. 1,332 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,054 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresHarper grew from 1,006 to 1,332 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 1,006 | |
| 2010 | 1,192 | +186 (+18%) |
| 2020 | 1,332 | +140 (+12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 11 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.
- 1894 USGS Kerrville quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1954 USGS Llano quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Llano quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Llano quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Harper East quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Kerrville quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
63 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of Harper between 2005 and 2020, burning about 2,782 acres in total. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 37 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 9 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | 200 PEDERNALES TRAIL |
| 3 September 2020 | Natural | under an acre | Texas A & M Forest Service | 1591WINDYRIDGEFIRE |
| 21 September 2015 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 13440 US HWY 479 |
| 13 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | US 290 @ FLAG CREEK |
| 30 August 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | APACHE RD REKINDLE |
| 21 August 2019 | Equipment and vehicle use | 15 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 659 WINDY RIDGE |
| 21 August 2018 | Natural | 26 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 20985 W US 290 |
| 20 August 2018 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 661 FIEDLER RD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
31 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Harper in 31 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 22 hail, 4 flash flood, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. 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 1999 | Tornado (F3) | Harper | $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Harper | $100,000 | Golfball-sized hail dented vehicle bodies, broke windows of cars and homes in the Harper area. |
| May 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harper | $80,000 | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Hail | Harper | - | A thunderstorm produced two inch diameter hail just west of Harper. |
| June 2025 | Flash Flood | Harper | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. The Banta Branch of the Pedernales River was out of its banks southwest of Harper. |
| April 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harper | - | A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 60 mph that knocked down some large trees. |
| August 2014 | Flash Flood | Harper | - | Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding. A low water crossing on Ranch Rd. 783 had approximately 1.5 feet of water over the roadway between Doss and Harper. |
| April 2008 | Hail | Harper | - | A resident along Jung Road reported hail. |
| March 2007 | Flash Flood | Harper | - | The northern half of Gillespie County received from 2 to 3 inches of rain in general, with up to 4 inches in the area around Willow City. FM783 and FM965 were closed due to flash flooding through the late afternoon and early evening. |
| May 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Harper | - | A small tornado reported by a trained Skywarn spotter and chaser. The tornado touched down in an open area for about two minutes, then lifted and dissipated. No damage occurred. |
| April 2006 | Hail | Harper | - | Hail as large as baseballs broke windows in homes and windshields in cars between Harper and Doss. The hail also destroyed vegetable gardens and damaged up to 70 percent of the area peach crop. |
| October 2006 | Flash Flood | Harper | - | Rainfall in the thunderstorms averaged between 2 and 3 inches over Gillespie County. The highest totals were 5 inches in Willow City in the northeast part of the county, as well as east of Harper in the west part of the county. SH16, FM965, and FM1376 were closed due to high water. |
| September 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Harper | - | Radio operators from the Hill Country Net reported trees down southeast of Harper. |
| October 1993 | Hail | Harper | - | HAM Radio operators reported half dollar-size hail in the western part of the County. |
| May 2016 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| April 2014 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| March 2013 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| March 2012 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| October 2009 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| February 2005 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| February 2000 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| February 2000 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Harper | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Harper | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tivydale | 8.4 miles | 11 | |
| Doss | 11.7 miles | 11 | |
| Morris Ranch | 13.6 miles | 11 | |
| Hilltop | 16.1 miles | 11 | |
| Cherry Spring | 17.8 miles | 11 | |
| Cherry Mountain | 17.9 miles | 11 | |
| Fredericksburg | 19.8 miles | 12 | |
| Crabapple | 23.7 miles | 12 |
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 Harper | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q982154 | 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 1374000. 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.





