Tow, Texas
18 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 78672. It stands on Calvert Creek. The Survey maps it on the Tow quadrangle. 226 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,037 feet above sea level.
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 18 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.
- 1887 USGS Burnet quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Burnet quadrangle1:125000
- 1903 USGS Burnet quadrangle1:125000
- 1909 USGS Burnet quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1932 USGS Tow quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Llano quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Llano quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Llano quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Tow quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1985 USGS Llano quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Llano quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
15 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 15 fires within 5 miles of Tow between 2005 and 2020, burning about 1,057 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 21 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | ELB VFD |
| 4 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | LOMA VISTA (11-0108) |
| 29 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GRASS FIRE |
| 6 August 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 376 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | CHIANS |
| 2 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 25 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | 217 |
| 14 July 2017 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.6 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | ELBVFD(1700097) |
| 9 June 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | GOODRICH RANCH (11-0069) |
| 30 June 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 586 acres | Texas A & M Forest Service | LONE GROVE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Tow: 5 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Lead, Copper, Silver, Gold, Fluorine-Fluorite, Zinc, Silver, Molybdenum, Gold, Iron, Lead. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bailey Prospect | Copper, Silver, Gold, Fluorine-Fluorite | Occurrence | ||
| Frank Thomas Farm | Zinc, Silver, Molybdenum, Gold, Iron, Lead | Occurrence | ||
| Beaver Creek Location | Lead | Occurrence | ||
| Beaver Creek Prospect | Lead | Occurrence | 1890 | |
| Silver Creek Mine | Lead | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
23 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tow in 23 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 19 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tow | $50,000 | A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 70 mph that downed power lines and damaged roofs just east of Tow along Lake Buchanan. |
| May 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tow | $2,000 | Trees and power lines were reported down. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced baseball size hail in Buchanan Lake Village. |
| March 2024 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced nickel size hail in Tow. |
| April 2024 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced 2.25 inch diameter hail in Tow. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced dime to nickel size hail and wind gusts up to 50 mph in Tow. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced quarter size hail in Tow. |
| June 2023 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced 2.25 inch diameter hail on the west side of Lake Buchanan. |
| May 2021 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced golf ball size hail between Tow and Bluffton. |
| April 2018 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced quarter size hail at the Hi-Line Lake Resort in Tow. |
| April 2018 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced half dollar size hail at the Texas Hills RV Haven in Tow. |
| April 2018 | Hail | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced quarter size hail in the Tow area. |
| March 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tow | - | A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 60 mph that knocked down large tree branches and damaged a carport on Lakeshore Loop near Lake Buchanan. |
| July 2005 | Flash Flood | Tow | - | Heavy rainfall from the thunderstorms that had formed across the northern Texas Hill Country spread into the Tow area by late evening. The storms produced a general 1 inch rainfall across northeastern Llano County, with up to 4 inches at Tow. FM2241 was closed near Tow due to flash flooding. |
| October 1994 | Hail | Tow | - | A spotter reported hail ranging from 0.75 to 0.88 inches in diameter in Tow. |
| October 1993 | Hail | Tow | - | Dime-size hail was reported in the Town of Tow. |
| May 2020 | Hail | Tow | - | no account filed |
| April 2018 | Hail | Tow | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Tow | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Tow | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Tow | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Tow | - | no account filed |
| March 1999 | Hail | Tow | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buchanan Lake Village | 2.6 miles | 18 | |
| Bluffton | 4.4 miles | 18 | |
| Golden Beach | 5.7 miles | 18 | |
| Lone Grove | 7.3 miles | 16 | |
| Stolz | 8.6 miles | 16 | |
| Baby Head (historical) | 9.6 miles | 17 | |
| Buchanan Dam | 10.1 miles | 20 | |
| Llano | 13.7 miles | 17 |
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 Tow | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q14711380 | 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 1370047. 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.










