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Metaline Falls, Washington

13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1992. It stands in the Ione-Metaline Falls census division. It lies in ZIP code area 99153. It stands on Sullivan Creek. The Survey maps it on the Metaline Falls quadrangle. 272 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,090 feet above sea level.

Metaline Falls within Pend Oreille County

On record in Metaline Falls

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 6 records

Population over time

2 figures

Metaline Falls grew from 238 to 272 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.

YearPeople Change
2010238
2020272+34 (+14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 13 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

38 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 38 fires within 5 miles of Metaline Falls between 1992 and 2020, burning about 41 acres in total. 17 started naturally. 2 were 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
Natural17
Debris and open burning6
Recreation and ceremony5
Power generation/transmission/distribution4
Equipment and vehicle use3
Arson/incendiarism2
Other causes1

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
22 September 1995Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
15 September 2009Power generation/transmission/distribution1.0 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersLOST CREEK
13 September 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreColville National ForestWEREWOLF (RED FLAG)
6 August 2010Naturalunder an acreColville National Forest21 MILE
4 August 2002Arson/incendiarismunder an acreColville National ForestSPOT 35
31 August 2013Naturalunder an acreColville National ForestS. FORK FLUME CREEK
3 August 1994Other causes1.0 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
28 August 2018Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreColville National ForestRIVERSIDE MINE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Pend Oreille County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 100 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 100 workings within 5 miles of Metaline Falls: 40 past producers, 26 occurrences, 26 prospects, 5 producers. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Lead, Zinc, Silver, Silver, 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Bella May MineZinc, Silver, Lead, Copper, UraniumPast Producer1906
Bella May MineZinc, Cadmium, Lead, Silver, UraniumProspect
Bella May, Diamond R., Polly MollyMolybdenum, Lead, ZincOccurrenceReplacement
Blue BucketZinc, Lead, SilverPast Producer
Blue BucketSilver, Zinc, LeadOccurrence
Blue JimSilver, Lead, Copper, Gold, Zinc, AntimonyOccurrenceChalcopyrite, Galena, Malachite, Pyrite, Siderite, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite
Frisco - StandardSilver, Copper, Antimony, Lead, ZincProducerChalcopyrite, Galena, Malachite, Pyrargyrite, Pyrite, Sphalerite, Stannite, Tetrahedrite
Grandview MineLead, Zinc, Copper, Cadmium, Silver, UraniumPast Producer1924
Grandview MineZinc, Lead, Silver, CadmiumPast Producer
HoosierCopper, Silver, GoldProspect

Every working recorded in Pend Oreille County

Storms near this place

3 since 2017

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Metaline Falls in 3 storm reports between 2017 and 2020: 1 debris flow, 1 flood, 1 hail. 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 2018FloodMetaline Falls$8,000,000The USGS River Flow Gage at Abeni Falls Dam which controls the flow of the Pend Oreille River surpassed the Flood Flow of 95,000 Cubic Feet per Second (CFS) at 2:30 PM PST on May 11th. The flow increased and passed through the Moderate Flood Flow of 115,000 CFS at 12:15 PM on May 18th. The flow continued to increase and peaked at the Moderate Flood reading of 121,000 CFS at at 5:00 AM on May 27th. The flow continued to fluctuate between 118,000 CFS and 121,000 CFS through the end of May. The flow receded to below the Flood Flow on June 6th.
April 2017Debris FlowMetaline Falls$200,000Periodic heavy rain and spring time snow melt continued to cause travel problems in Pend Oreille County through the first half of April. Numerous secondary roads were damaged or cut by small stream and field flooding and debris flows. Most notably, Flowery Trail Road which crosses a mountain range and connects the towns of Usk and Chewelah was closed due to dangerous and unstable conditions caused by a 300 yard section of hillside slowly flowing onto the road bed.
June 2020HailMetaline Falls-A member of the public reported quarter size hail on Sullivan Creek from a thunderstorm near Metaline Falls.

Every storm recorded in Pend Oreille 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
Pend Oreille Village0.5 miles13
Metaline1.3 miles13
Ione8.8 miles14
Tiger12.0 miles14
Lost Creek17.6 miles12
Diamond City17.6 miles12
Blueslide21.3 miles12
Ruby23.9 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 Metaline FallsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1507975The 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 1523023. 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.