Amherst, Wisconsin
6 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Amherst Village. It lies in ZIP code area 54406. It stands on Bear Creek. The Survey maps it on the Amherst quadrangle. 1,117 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,093 feet above sea level.
On record in Amherst
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
L. A. Pomeroy Houselisted 1992
Population over time
2 figuresAmherst grew from 1,035 to 1,117 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,035 | |
| 2020 | 1,117 | +82 (+8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 6 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.
- 1955 USGS Green Bay quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Amherst quadrangle1:48000
- 1969 USGS Amherst quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Wisconsin Rapids quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
131 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 131 fires within 5 miles of Amherst between 1992 and 2020, burning about 222 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 3 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 burning | 34 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 28 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 27 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Fireworks | 5 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 September 2009 | Fireworks | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | WARD ROAD FIRE |
| 17 September 2018 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | TRAIN BRAKE FIRE |
| 12 September 2012 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | SMOKEY RR FIRE #1 |
| 9 August 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | FOUNTAIN GROVE HOLDOVER |
| 7 August 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 3.3 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | PAVELSKI BALER FIRE |
| 5 August 2012 | Smoking | 2.1 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | HWY 10 WESTBOUND FIRE |
| 3 August 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 28 August 1998 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
24 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Amherst in 24 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 3 heavy rain, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | $1,000 | no account filed |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds downed multiple trees, power poles, and power lines in Amherst. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Amherst | - | Penny size hail fell in Amherst. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees, about 5 inches in diameter, near Amherst. |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Amherst. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds knocked trees onto power lines near Amherst. |
| July 2016 | Hail | Amherst | - | Nickel size hail fell in the Amherst area. |
| August 2015 | Heavy Rain | Amherst | - | A spotter in Amherst measured more than 3 inches of rain since early morning, with more than 2.75 inches falling during the evening. The torrential rainfall caused a steet in Amherst to become impassable. |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Amherst near County Road B. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees across southeast Portage County. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Amherst | - | Penny size hail fell in Amherst. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Amherst | - | Quarter size hail fell in Amherst. |
| July 2011 | Heavy Rain | Amherst | - | Five cars were unable to pass under a railroad bridge on Main Street in Amherst due to high water from heavy rainfall. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees in the town of Amherst. |
| March 2008 | Heavy Rain | Amherst | - | Heavy rain fell across most of Portage County. The highest precipitation totals were 1.40 inches near Amherst and 1.22 inches at Stevens Point. |
| May 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | A street sign was bent over by strong winds. |
| March 2007 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| April 2003 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Funnel Cloud | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| March 1998 | Hail | Amherst | - | no account filed |
| August 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Amherst | - | no account filed |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amherst Junction | 1.9 miles | 6 | |
| Lake Emily (historical) | 3.2 miles | 6 | |
| Nelsonville | 3.3 miles | 6 | |
| New Hope | 3.8 miles | 7 | |
| Fancher | 5.4 miles | 6 | |
| Garfield | 7.7 miles | 7 | |
| Peru | 8.5 miles | 7 | |
| Custer | 8.6 miles | 7 |
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 Amherst | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2610159 | 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 1560831. 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.
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.



