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Forks, Washington

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1939 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Forks census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98331. It stands on Forks Prairie. The Survey maps it on the Forks quadrangle. 3,335 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 305 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Forks within Clallam County

Population over time

7 figures

Forks grew from 1,120 to 3,335 between 1950 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
19501,120
19601,156+36 (+3%)
19701,680+524 (+45%)
19803,060+1,380 (+82%)
19902,862-198 (-6%)
20103,532+670 (+23%)
20203,335-197 (-6%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 11 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

46 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 46 fires within 5 miles of Forks between 1993 and 2019, burning about 10 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
Recreation and ceremony12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined12
Debris and open burning10
Misuse of fire by a minor5
Equipment and vehicle use3
Fireworks2
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
4 September 2014Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersCALAWAH RIVER
4 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
4 September 2005Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersDIRTY GARBAGE
19 September 2014Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersRADIO
19 September 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOlympic National ForestA ROAD
1 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreOlympic National ForestA ROAD PIT
9 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters110 JUNCTION
8 August 2018Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersA-ROAD

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Clallam County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 26 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 26 workings within 5 miles of Forks: 25 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, 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
North Quarry 5000Stone, DimensionPast Producer
Quarry 5054Stone, DimensionPast Producer
Quarry 5060Stone, DimensionPast Producer
Quarry 5837.21Stone, DimensionPast Producer
Asphalt PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Beaver Camp PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Bogachiel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Bonidu PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Forks Office PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Clallam County

Storms near this place

3 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Forks in 3 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 2 heavy rain, 1 lightning. 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
December 2010LightningForks$50,000A lightning storm knocked two Forks radio stations off the air and damaged some equipment. It also caused a fire that destroyed a nearby home.
December 1999Heavy RainForks$10,000no account filed
February 2025Heavy RainForks-Heavy rainfall of 2.57 inches was reported at Forks, WA.

Every storm recorded in Clallam 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
Shuwah4.9 miles10
Beaver7.6 miles11
Quillayute8.3 miles11
Sappho10.0 miles11
Mora12.5 miles11
La Push13.6 miles11
Old Royal16.3 miles10
Ozette20.5 miles12

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 ForksAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q226013The 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 1519696. 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.