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
Population over time
7 figuresForks 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | 1,120 | |
| 1960 | 1,156 | +36 (+3%) |
| 1970 | 1,680 | +524 (+45%) |
| 1980 | 3,060 | +1,380 (+82%) |
| 1990 | 2,862 | -198 (-6%) |
| 2010 | 3,532 | +670 (+23%) |
| 2020 | 3,335 | -197 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 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.
- 1939 USGS Forks quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS Copalis Beach quadrangle1:250000
- 1951 USGS Copalis Beach quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Copalis Beach quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Forks quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1963 USGS Copalis Beach quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Forks quadrangle1:24000
- 1988 USGS Forks quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
46 since 1993Regional 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 ceremony | 12 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 |
| Debris and open burning | 10 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | CALAWAH RIVER |
| 4 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 4 September 2005 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | DIRTY GARBAGE |
| 19 September 2014 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | RADIO |
| 19 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Olympic National Forest | A ROAD |
| 1 September 2006 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Olympic National Forest | A ROAD PIT |
| 9 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | 110 JUNCTION |
| 8 August 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | A-ROAD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 26 shownRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Quarry 5000 | Stone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Quarry 5054 | Stone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Quarry 5060 | Stone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Quarry 5837.21 | Stone, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Asphalt Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Beaver Camp Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Bogachiel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Bonidu Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Forks Office Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 1999Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2010 | Lightning | Forks | $50,000 | A 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 1999 | Heavy Rain | Forks | $10,000 | no account filed |
| February 2025 | Heavy Rain | Forks | - | Heavy rainfall of 2.57 inches was reported at Forks, WA. |
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 Forks | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q226013 | 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 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.







