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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.

Benton within Lafayette County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Benton 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.

YearPeople Change
2010973
2020946-27 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 14 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

5 since 2018

Regional 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/undetermined4
Debris and open burning1

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
26 April 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources202013
24 April 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined5.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources2018006
4 March 2018Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resources201808
15 March 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources201804
8 October 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resources20109

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lafayette County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 255 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Etna MineLead, IronPast Producer
Farrey MineIron, ZincPast Producer1940
Raisbeck MineZinc, Barium-Barite, LeadUnknownBarite
Doc Schampers QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Johns QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Bear Hole MillZinc, LeadPast Producer
Byrnes MineZinc, LeadPast Producer1927, 1928
Crawford MineZinc, LeadPast Producer1931, 1932
Ernest and Meyers LevelZinc, LeadPast Producer1850
Ewing and Cook MineZinc, LeadPast Producer1941, 1942

Every working recorded in Lafayette County

Storms near this place

27 since 1995

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1998Tornado (F2)Benton11 hurt, $1,700,000A 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 2009HailBenton$500,000A 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 2004Flash FloodBenton$100,000Several reports of houses flooded, people evacuated, mudslides destroyed freshly planted crops.
September 2013Thunderstorm WindBenton$40,000Numerous trees and power lines down.
May 1998HailBenton$12,000no account filed
July 2008Flash FloodBenton$10,000Heavy 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 2000HailBenton$10,000no account filed
July 2024Flash FloodBenton$5,000Water 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 2019Flash FloodBenton$5,000Flash flooding of roads in Darlington and other townships throughout the county. Numerous road closures were needed due to the high water.
February 2018FloodBenton$5,000Widespread flooding of lowland and agricultural land including some roads.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindBenton$5,000Several large trees were toppled and a power pole was bent by powerful thunderstorm winds.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindBenton$5,000Pontoon boat overturned.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindBenton$3,000no account filed
July 2024Thunderstorm WindBenton$2,000Branches down and a shed blown over.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindBenton$2,000Several trees down.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindBenton$1,000no account filed
March 2025Thunderstorm WindBenton-Wind gusts in the mid to upper 60 mph range were measured on a home weather station.
July 2009Thunderstorm WindBenton-Powerful thunderstorm winds toppled dozens of trees.
April 2023HailBenton-no account filed
May 2008HailBenton-no account filed
May 2004HailBenton-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindBenton-no account filed
August 2002FloodBenton-no account filed
September 2001Thunderstorm WindBenton-no account filed
May 1999HailBenton-no account filed
May 1998Funnel CloudBenton-no account filed
April 1995Thunderstorm WindBenton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lafayette 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
Lead Mine1.9 miles12
Strawbridge2.6 miles14
Etna2.8 miles12
New Diggings3.4 miles12
Jenkinsville4.5 miles13
Meekers Grove5.3 miles13
White Oak6.5 miles12
Elk Grove7.1 miles13

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 BentonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2671418The 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.