Gays Mills, Wisconsin
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1924 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Gays Mills Village. It lies in ZIP code area 54631. It lies near Caswell Hollow. The Survey maps it on the Gays Mills quadrangle. 523 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 702 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresGays Mills grew from 491 to 523 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 | 491 | |
| 2020 | 523 | +32 (+7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 10 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.
- 1924 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:62500
- 1926 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:62500
- 1958 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:62500
- 1976 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Gays Mills quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Richland Center quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
55 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 55 fires within 5 miles of Gays Mills between 1992 and 2020, burning about 125 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 7 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 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 July 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | FRANK ROAD FIRE |
| 24 July 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | B AND C FIRE |
| 16 July 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 June 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 June 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 May 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | NO TILL FIRE |
| 2 May 2009 | Debris and open burning | 4.9 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | TURKEY RIDGE FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Gays Mills: 1 unknown, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Kraemer and Sons, Inc. | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Judy Smith Quarry | Stone | Unknown |
Storms near this place
20 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Gays Mills in 20 storm reports between 1994 and 2019: 7 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 flood, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2007 | Flood | Gays Mills | $1,100,000 | Flooding continued along many creeks, streams and rivers. Law enforcement officials reported numerous roads and bridges were either washed out or still under water. All or portions of highways still closed included Highway 131 from Steuben to Soldiers Grove, Highway 171 at Gays Mills and Highway 179 at Steuben. |
| August 2007 | Flood | Gays Mills | $150,000 | The Kickapoo River at Gays Mills established the second highest all-time crest of record when it reached 19.79 feet on August 20. Flood stage is 13 feet. |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gays Mills | $90,000 | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Gays Mills | $45,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gays Mills | $15,000 | no account filed |
| April 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gays Mills | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gays Mills | $3,000 | Power lines and trees were blown down. |
| May 2002 | Flash Flood | Gays Mills | $3,000 | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gays Mills | $500 | no account filed |
| March 2019 | Flood | Gays Mills | - | Runoff from rain and melting snow pushed the Kickapoo River out of its banks in Readstown. The river crested over three feet above the flood stage at 14.27 feet on March 16th. |
| September 2018 | Flood | Gays Mills | - | Flooding along the Kickapoo River at Readstown that began in late August, ended in very early September. |
| September 2018 | Flood | Gays Mills | - | Runoff from heavy rains pushed the Kickapoo River out of its banks in Readstown. The river crested over six feet above the flood stage at 17.3 feet on September 5th. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Gays Mills | - | The COOP observer in Gays Mills measured 5.1 inches of rain. |
| June 2006 | Hail | Gays Mills | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Gays Mills | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Gays Mills | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Gays Mills | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Gays Mills | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Gays Mills | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Gays Mills | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell Center | 2.0 miles | 10 | |
| Petersburg | 3.1 miles | 10 | |
| Johnstown | 3.5 miles | 10 | |
| Mount Sterling | 4.4 miles | 10 | |
| Yankeetown | 5.0 miles | 10 | |
| Rolling Ground | 5.6 miles | 10 | |
| Pine Knob | 5.8 miles | 10 | |
| Montgomeryville | 6.2 miles | 10 |
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 Gays Mills | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2685955 | 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 1565448. 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.








