Chewelah, Washington
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1927 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Chewelah census division. It lies in ZIP code area 99109. It stands on North Fork Chewelah Creek. The Survey maps it on the Chewelah quadrangle. 2,470 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,667 feet above sea level.
On record in Chewelah
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Old Indian Agencylisted 1974
Population over time
2 figuresChewelah fell from 2,607 to 2,470 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 | 2,607 | |
| 2020 | 2,470 | -137 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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.
- 1927 USGS Chewelah quadrangle1:125000
- 1930 USGS Chewelah quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1963 USGS Sandpoint quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Chewelah quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1964 USGS Chewelah Mtn quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Chewelah quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Chewelah quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
130 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 130 fires within 5 miles of Chewelah between 1992 and 2020, burning about 187 acres in total. 28 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 37 |
| Natural | 28 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 27 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Other causes | 8 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | HORSESHOE LAKE |
| 6 September 1998 | Recreation and ceremony | 3.5 acres | Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge | WEINER |
| 6 September 1998 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Colville National Forest | INCIDENT 136 |
| 6 September 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 28 September 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | SAND CANYON |
| 23 September 2014 | Natural | under an acre | Colville National Forest | DEVILS CAN |
| 21 September 1992 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 21 September 1992 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.1 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 84 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 84 workings within 5 miles of Chewelah: 32 occurrences, 22 prospects, 15 past producers, 8 producers. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Copper, Silver, Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belcher | Copper, Silver, Gold, Lead | Prospect | ||
| Chewelah Eagle | Dolomite, Limestone, Dimension | Producer | ||
| Chewelah Standard | Copper, Silver, Gold, Molybdenum | Occurrence | ||
| Chewelah Standard | Copper, Silver, Molybdenum, Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Chinto | Copper, Silver, Gold, Zinc, Arsenic, Antimony | Occurrence | Chalcopyrite, Pyrite, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite | |
| Chinto | Copper, Silver, Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Copper Queen | Copper, Gold, Lead, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Eagle | Silver, Lead, Zinc, Gold, Molybdenum, Copper | Occurrence | ||
| Eagle | Silver, Lead, Gold, Copper, Zinc | Prospect | ||
| Fibco, Inc | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
10 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chewelah in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 3 hail, 3 flood, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1998 | Flash Flood | Chewelah | $50,000 | Roads flooded in and around Chewelah |
| January 2006 | Flood | Chewelah | $20,000 | Heavy rains over the past week flooded all of the classrooms and the school library on the east end of the Chewelah High School causing 20,000 dollars worth of damage. |
| August 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chewelah | $10,000 | Collapsing thunderstorms caused downed tree limbs and numerous power outages near Chewelah and areas to the southwest. Estimated over 2000 people were without power. Time estimated from radar. No observed gusts were recorded. |
| July 2022 | Lightning | Chewelah | $5,000 | Lightning severely damaged several power poles, downed wires, and ignited a fire on a tree in Chewelah. Time estimated based on dispatch reports and radar. |
| September 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chewelah | $2,000 | Neighbors reported roof damage from strong winds associated with a thunderstorm. |
| May 2011 | Flood | Chewelah | $1,000 | Chewelah Creek flowed out of its banks on May 26th flooding portions of Highway 395, Lincoln Street, and Chewelah City Park. Water had dropped significantly by the |evening of May 28th with only some residual standing water on Lincoln Street. Damage estimates were only for the park and playground equipment. |
| May 2023 | Hail | Chewelah | - | Report was observed near Chewelah. |
| May 2011 | Flood | Chewelah | - | Chewelah Creek rose to bank level on May 12th resulting in portions of Chewelah Park being inundated with water next to the creek. By May 16th, the creek had risen considerably out of its banks with flooding observed over Lincoln Avenue south of the park forcing its closure. The creek continued to rise through May 17th at which time water began flowing over state route 395 between mile post 206.69 and 207.81 forcing its closure as well. Flood waters approached businesses next to the park, but did not appear to make it inside any buildings. |
| May 1997 | Hail | Chewelah | - | sheriff reports 1 inch hail |
| June 1996 | Hail | Chewelah | - | 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 Chewelah | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1515809 | 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 1517676. 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.







