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South Prairie, Washington

29 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1997. It stands in the Buckley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 98385. It stands on Wilkeson Creek. The Survey maps it on the Buckley quadrangle. 373 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 430 feet above sea level.

South Prairie within Pierce County

On record in South Prairie

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

Population over time

2 figures

South Prairie fell from 434 to 373 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
2010434
2020373-61 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 29 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

63 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 63 fires within 5 miles of South Prairie between 1992 and 2020, burning about 79 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning16
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Recreation and ceremony16
Other causes4
Fireworks4
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Equipment and vehicle use2
Arson/incendiarism2

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
9 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined12 acresWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters156TH SREET
7 September 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersSOUTH PRAIRIE CREEK
6 September 2014Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources HeadquartersCASCADIA
5 September 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquarters186TH
4 September 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
29 September 1996Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
24 September 2000Debris and open burningunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named
21 September 1994Other causesunder an acreWashington State Department of Natural Resources Headquartersnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Pierce County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of South Prairie: 14 past producers, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Flagstone. 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
Walker QuarryFlagstonePast Producer
Burlington Northern QuarryStonePast Producer
Carbon Ridge BlowdownStonePast Producer
Clearwest-Westfork PitStonePast Producer
Road 0602 Pit 1818StonePast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Gregg PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Ogle PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Pierce County

Storms near this place

2 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Prairie in 2 storm reports between 2008 and 2017: 1 heavy rain, 1 debris flow. 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
November 2008Heavy RainSouth Prairie$800,000Several roads in eastern Pierce county were washed out by heavy rain.
March 2017Debris FlowSouth Prairie-The Tacoma News Tribune reported a landslide near Buckley, WA at 239 Ave E and South Prairie Rd.

Every storm recorded in Pierce 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
Cascade Junction1.1 miles29
Prairie Ridge2.7 miles28
Burnett2.7 miles29
Rhododendron Park3.4 miles28
Ponderosa Estates3.4 miles28
Wilkeson3.6 miles26
Cedar View3.7 miles28
Buckley4.1 miles29

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 South PrairieAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1512391The 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 1526307. 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.