BlockBloomington, Wisconsin
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Bloomington Village. It lies in ZIP code area 53804. The Survey maps it on the Bloomington quadrangle. 741 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,040 feet above sea level.
On record in Bloomington
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
James Ballantine Houselisted 1976
Population over time
2 figuresBloomington grew from 735 to 741 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 | 735 | |
| 2020 | 741 | +6 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 16 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.
- 1900 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000
- 1904 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000
- 1908 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1959 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Bloomington quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1976 USGS Dubuque quadrangle1:250000
- 1984 USGS Dubuque North quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
What happened here
An account from the chapter on Bloomington village. The inset identifies its exact source book and publication year.
The Great Fire
For nearly forty-five years Blooeqiugton existed as a village with¬ out a house being burned - a remarkable record. The Finn building caught fire three times, but each tune the .fire was discovered in time to he extinguished without serious damage. But at last, on the night of March 22, 1897, what everybody had been expecting for thirty years happened, and two-thirds of the business part of the vil¬ lage was swept away in .a night.
In the county-history sources
5,431 words on this townshipHistory of Grant County Wisconsin, published 1900 names this settlement in its chapter on Bloomington Village. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Bnt while the village was thus flourishing, trouble befell its found¬ er, D. W. Taft. Getting into financial difficulties, the mill property fell into the hands of the mortgagee, Cyrus Sargent, who soon after transferred it to Woodhouse & Thomas. A good many of the villagers had become unfriendly to Mr. Taft and through their influence the name of the village, township, and post-office was changed to Bloom¬ ington in 1867. The change in the name of the town and the village was made by the legislature. Before this the village had been divided into factions on the academy matter, and now one faction espoused the cause of Taft and Tafton and the others that of Bloomington. The County Board was petitioned to change the name back to Tafton, and at its annual session in November, 1867, the Board ordered a special election to determine the matter ; bnt if the town neglected to hold such election, then the name should be changed to Tafton. Such election was held and the name Bloomington received 143 votes and the name Tafton 96 votes.
Passage source: History of Grant County Wisconsin, published 1900.
Bloomington has not suffered as many of these as most towns. The fint one was an explosion in the store of Benham & Osborne, in February, 1857. Mr. J. F. Benham was about to measure out some machine oil and took a can which he supposed to contain oil and placed it on the stove to warm it. It proved to contain powder, which exploded. The front of the store was blown out and the build¬ ing otherwise damaged. Mr. Benham was knocked senseless, and was badly burned and the sight of one eye destroyed. The next accident was less serious. A donation party was held in the building just across the street from the hotel January 31, 1857. The floor on which the party was assembled gave way, precipitating them all into the basement, where the supper table was set. The supper was worse damaged than any of the party. One lady put her foot into a large piece of butter whose elaborate molding had called forth a good deal of admiration before the accident, and another landed (if landed is the appropriate word) in a wash-boiler full of oyster soup.
Passage source: History of Grant County Wisconsin, published 1900.
The Bloomington Record. - This paper was started July 15, 1880, by Charles J. Glazier. In October, 1881, he sold the paper to C. N. Holford and removed to Breckinridge, Minnesota. The Record was printed on the same press and type with which Mr. Holford had years before printed the Argus in Lancaster. On December 15, 1882, C. N. Holford sold the paper to L. C. McKenney, who published it until September 18, 1888, when he sold it to Cook Brothers. The changes of publishers were afterward frequent : Ernest Brooks and U. L. Hol¬ ford, in 1889, C. W. Cook in the same year, then Ernest Brooks, then C. H. Curtis & Co., all in 1890; then Steele & Brooks and Frank Wagner in 1891. In 1895 Ernest Brooks took charge again and still publishes the paper.
Passage source: History of Grant County Wisconsin, published 1900.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Bloomington Village - it names this place 3 more 3 times.
Fires near this place
4 since 2018Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Bloomington between 2018 and 2020, burning about 2 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 12A2020 |
| 28 March 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 10A2019 |
| 18 March 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 5 |
| 5 February 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | 01A2019 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Bloomington: 2 unknowns, 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Stone. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finn Quarry | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Kirschbaum Quarry | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Charlie White Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Ulehoven Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Zenz Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
11 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bloomington in 11 storm reports between 1999 and 2022: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 death. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2001 | Lightning | Bloomington | 1 killed | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Flash Flood | Bloomington | $900,000 | Runoff from heavy rains caused flash flooding to occur across the northwest portion of Grant County. Nearly every township road was closed because of flood damage across Wyalusing, Millville and Woodman townships. Roads were also closed in and near Fennimore. Water over the road, debris on the road and mudslides affected U.S. Highway 61 for about 5 miles south of Boscobel. |
| May 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bloomington | $8,000 | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bloomington | $5,000 | Trees and power lines were blown down near Bloomington. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bloomington | $500 | Trees were blown down onto Highway 35 and blocked traffic. |
| July 2022 | Funnel Cloud | Bloomington | - | A funnel cloud was sighted near Bloomington. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bloomington | - | An estimated 60 mph wind gust occurred in Bloomington. |
| July 2016 | Flash Flood | Bloomington | - | Locally heavy rains caused most creeks in and near Bloomington to go out of their banks. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Bloomington | - | no account filed |
| June 2011 | Hail | Bloomington | - | no account filed |
| May 1999 | Hail | Bloomington | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patch Grove | 4.6 miles | 16 | |
| North Andover | 5.3 miles | 16 | |
| Flora Fountain | 5.8 miles | 16 | |
| Diamond Grove | 6.4 miles | 16 | |
| Beetown | 6.5 miles | 16 | |
| Mount Hope | 6.6 miles | 15 | |
| Five Points | 7.8 miles | 16 | |
| Brodtville | 8.0 miles | 12 |
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 Bloomington | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2425396 | 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 1561936. 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.