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Smiley, Texas

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Smiley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78159. It stands on Little Elm Creek. The Survey maps it on the Smiley quadrangle. 475 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 312 feet above sea level.

Smiley within Gonzales County

Population over time

3 figures

Smiley grew from 453 to 475 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
2000453
2010549+96 (+21%)
2020475-74 (-13%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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

4 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Smiley between 2006 and 2018, burning about 51 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
Debris and open burning2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

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
12 February 2006Debris and open burning40 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
9 January 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined10 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceGRASS FIRE SMILEY
14 January 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceSTATE OF TEXAS
13 January 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Gonzales County

Storms near this place

15 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Smiley in 15 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 7 flash flood, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1999Thunderstorm WindSmiley$100,000no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindSmiley$30,000no account filed
March 2000Thunderstorm WindSmiley$10,000Additional trees were reported to have been blown down in southwest Gonzales County.
May 2024Thunderstorm WindSmiley$5,000A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 60 mph that knocked down multiple large tree limbs in Smiley.
November 2025HailSmiley-A thunderstorm produced hail up to the size of nickels in Smiley.
January 2024Flash FloodSmiley-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding and a high water rescue on CR 211 south of Smiley.
May 2023Flash FloodSmiley-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. TXDoT reported water over the road on FM 108 south of Smiley at Smith Creek.
June 2015Flash FloodSmiley-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding closing FM108 at Sandies Creek northeast of Smiley.
November 2009Flash FloodSmiley-Heavy rain caused area creeks to flow over roads.
April 2009HailSmiley-Dime and nickel size hail was reported at the intersection of US Hwy 87 and FM108 in Smiley.
July 2007Flash FloodSmiley-Thunderstorms between over southern Gonzales, northern Lavaca and northern DeWitt Counties produced general 2 to 3 inch rain totals with up to 5 inches near Smiley. US97 and US87 were closed near Nixon.
July 2007Flash FloodSmiley-Rainfall between 2 and 3 inches caused flash flooding in the late evening period from Gonzales southwestward, closing FM108 and SH111.||
March 2005Flash FloodSmiley-Thunderstorms produced general 2 inch rain accumulations over northern DeWitt County and southern Gonzales County. Nearly 3 inches was indicated in the area between Westhoff and Nordheim in DeWitt County and Smiley in Gonzales County. Through much of the evening, flash flooding closed FM108 on both sides of the DeWitt-Gonzales County line, as well as FM240 in DeWitt County.
March 1998Tornado (F0)Smiley-Sheriff's deputies reported a small, short-lived tornado near Smiley in open country. It dissipated rapidly.
September 1995Thunderstorm WindSmiley-Several chicken coops destroyed.

Every storm recorded in Gonzales 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
Schoolland4.8 miles10
Pilgrim6.3 miles10
Nixon6.8 miles13
Sample6.9 miles11
Wrightsboro8.2 miles10
Yokum8.3 miles11
Bebe10.2 miles10
Leesville11.2 miles10

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 SmileyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q972406The 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 1368454. 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.