Benton, Wisconsin
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1902 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Benton town. It lies in ZIP code area 53803. It stands on Blacks Creek. The Survey maps it on the Cuba City quadrangle. 946 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 860 feet above sea level.
On record in Benton
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
Benton Stone Water Towerlisted 1999
Population over time
2 figuresBenton fell from 973 to 946 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 | 973 | |
| 2020 | 946 | -27 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 14 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.
- 1902 USGS Mineral Point quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1952 USGS Cuba City quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Dubuque North quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
5 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Benton between 2018 and 2020, burning about 6 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 April 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 202013 |
| 24 April 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 2018006 |
| 4 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 201808 |
| 15 March 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 201804 |
| 8 October 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 20109 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 255 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 255 workings within 5 miles of Benton: 128 past producers, 124 unknowns, 2 prospects, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Zinc, Lead, Lead, Zinc, Zinc, 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etna Mine | Lead, Iron | Past Producer | ||
| Farrey Mine | Iron, Zinc | Past Producer | 1940 | |
| Raisbeck Mine | Zinc, Barium-Barite, Lead | Unknown | Barite | |
| Doc Schampers Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Johns Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Bear Hole Mill | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Byrnes Mine | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | 1927, 1928 | |
| Crawford Mine | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | 1931, 1932 | |
| Ernest and Meyers Level | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | 1850 | |
| Ewing and Cook Mine | Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | 1941, 1942 |
Storms near this place
27 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Benton in 27 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 12 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 4 flash flood, 2 flood. The reports record 11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1998 | Tornado (F2) | Benton | 11 hurt, $1,700,000 | A supercell thunderstorm, after dropping a couple tornadoes in northeast Iowa, eventually moved northeast into Lafayette county, creating another tornado. This tornado touched down just southwest of Benton and hopped/skipped northeast for 20 miles. It caused moderate to severe damage to 40 different farms and their outbuildings, and homes. Numerous power lines were downed. Eleven people were injured: 2 children near Cuba city, 3 children southwest of Truman, and 6 adults in a vehicle on Highway 81 south of Benton. Several farm fields sustained damage. |
| July 2009 | Hail | Benton | $500,000 | A 5-mile wide hail swath damaged crops (corn, soy beans, wheat, and alflafa), vehicles (dents and broken windows), and at least 25 homes (roofs, windows, and siding). This swath merged with another hail swath from an ealier storm that traveled from Northwest Lafayette County to southeast of Shullsburg. Some farm fiels were stripped to nothing by the hail stones.||Newspaper accounts indicated that the two hail swaths resulted in damage to 20,000 acres of corn and 10,000 acres of soybeans in Lafayette County. Using an avarge of 135 bushes of corn per acre with a price of $3.45 per bushels yields a corn loss of $9.315 M. Using an average of 38 bushels of soybeans per acre, and a price of $9.25 per bushel yields a soybean loss of $3.515 M. These loss estimates were divided by two and assigned to the two hail swaths equally. |
| May 2004 | Flash Flood | Benton | $100,000 | Several reports of houses flooded, people evacuated, mudslides destroyed freshly planted crops. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $40,000 | Numerous trees and power lines down. |
| May 1998 | Hail | Benton | $12,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Flash Flood | Benton | $10,000 | Heavy rains of 2 to 3 inches within 1 to 1.5 hours resulted in flash flooding in and around Benton as water depths reached 3 feet on some roads. Some gravel shoulder washouts were noted. |
| May 2000 | Hail | Benton | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Flash Flood | Benton | $5,000 | Water flowing over a portion of highway 126 near Belmont. Portions of roads flooded in or near Benton, Shullsburg, Darlington, South Wayne and Gratiot. A culvert washed out near Benton. |
| September 2019 | Flash Flood | Benton | $5,000 | Flash flooding of roads in Darlington and other townships throughout the county. Numerous road closures were needed due to the high water. |
| February 2018 | Flood | Benton | $5,000 | Widespread flooding of lowland and agricultural land including some roads. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $5,000 | Several large trees were toppled and a power pole was bent by powerful thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $5,000 | Pontoon boat overturned. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $2,000 | Branches down and a shed blown over. |
| September 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $2,000 | Several trees down. |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | - | Wind gusts in the mid to upper 60 mph range were measured on a home weather station. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | - | Powerful thunderstorm winds toppled dozens of trees. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Benton | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Benton | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Benton | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Flood | Benton | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Benton | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Benton | - | no account filed |
| April 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Benton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead Mine | 1.9 miles | 12 | |
| Strawbridge | 2.6 miles | 14 | |
| Etna | 2.8 miles | 12 | |
| New Diggings | 3.4 miles | 12 | |
| Jenkinsville | 4.5 miles | 13 | |
| Meekers Grove | 5.3 miles | 13 | |
| White Oak | 6.5 miles | 12 | |
| Elk Grove | 7.1 miles | 13 |
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 Benton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2671418 | 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 1561578. 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.






