Oso, Washington
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1899 and the latest in 1989. It stands in the Arlington census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98223. It stands on Deer Creek. The Survey maps it on the Oso quadrangle. 172 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 207 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresOso fell from 246 to 172 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 246 | |
| 2010 | 180 | -66 (-27%) |
| 2020 | 172 | -8 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 15 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.
- 1899 USGS Stillaguamish quadrangle1:125000
- 1901 USGS Stilaguamish quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1901 USGS Stillaguamish quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Concrete quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Oso quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Concrete quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Concrete quadrangle1:250000
- 1989 USGS Oso quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
20 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 20 fires within 5 miles of Oso between 1993 and 2020, burning about 150 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 1993 | Equipment and vehicle use | 70 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 5 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | WHEELER |
| 17 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | FUCHSL |
| 16 August 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | FRAILEY PIT |
| 14 August 2006 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 3.0 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 8 July 2010 | Fireworks | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | LOG JAM |
| 4 July 2003 | Fireworks | 3.3 acres | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | not named |
| 17 July 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Washington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters | NAVY VIEW |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Oso: 5 occurrences, 2 past producers, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Nickel, Manganese, Pumice, Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ernest Miller Prospect | Chromium, Nickel | Occurrence | ||
| Halterman Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Oso | Stone | Occurrence | ||
| Oso Quarry | Pumice | Past Producer | ||
| Lake Riley | Manganese | Prospect | 1956 | |
| Lake Riley Prospect | Manganese | Occurrence | Rhodochrosite, Rhodonite | |
| Cavanaugh Lake | Nickel | Occurrence | ||
| Cavanaugh Lake | Nickel | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
2 since 2014Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oso in 2 storm reports between 2014 and 2017: 2 debris flow. The reports record 43 deaths and 12 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2014 | Debris Flow | Oso | 43 killed, 12 hurt, $60,000,000 | On a warm and dry 22nd of March, 2014, a large landslide occurred four miles east of the town of Oso, Washington. The slide debris, traveling at over 60 miles per hour, crossed the entire river valley, covering an area of over a square mile with an approximate deposit thickness of 15 to 75 feet in some areas. The force of the slide flow caused 43 fatalities, 12 injuries, destroyed 37 homes, and wiped out SR 530 for over a mile. In addition, the slide debris completely blocked the North Fork Stillaguamish River for over 24 hours, backing up a pool of water that flooded the valley about 2 miles upstream and reached approximately 20 feet deep, inundating an additional 6 homes. The cause of the slide is not fully known, though precipitation in the previous months to years contributed to the ground failure. A rain gage located 2 miles west of the slide had 19.93 inches of rain in the 40 days leading up to the slide. |As of March 19th the nearest reporting station Arlington, had reported 7.14 inches of rain, which is about 2 inches shy of the record 9.23 for the entire month of March. Three days before the slide, the area received close to an inch of rain in one day. Most all of the fatalities occurred at the permanent homes impacted by the slide. |
| April 2017 | Debris Flow | Oso | - | A small landslide occurred near the town of Oso, WA and SR530 was closed for precaution (4 mile stretch between Oso Loop Road and C Post Road. |
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 Oso | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1510467 | 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 1524091. 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.







