Manawa, Wisconsin
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Manawa City. It lies in ZIP code area 54949. The Survey maps it on the Manawa quadrangle. 1,441 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 817 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresManawa grew from 1,371 to 1,441 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 | 1,371 | |
| 2020 | 1,441 | +70 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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
- 1956 USGS Weyauwega quadrangle1:48000
- 1969 USGS Manawa quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1984 USGS Appleton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
107 words on this townshipHistory of Waupaca County, Wisconsin, published 1890 names this settlement in its chapter on Manawa City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The Village of Manawa is situated near the center of the tow^n, and near the center of the County, on the Little Wolf River. It has 5 general stores, 1 hardware store, 1 drug store, 1 saw mill, 1 stave factory, 1 millinery store, 2 blacksmith shops, 1 meat market, 1 livery stable, 2 harness shops, 2 furniture stores, 4 churches, and 1 high school.
Passage source: History of Waupaca County, Wisconsin, published 1890.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Fires near this place
91 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 91 fires within 5 miles of Manawa between 1992 and 2020, burning about 94 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 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 | 43 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Smoking | 5 |
| Fireworks | 4 |
| Other causes | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 September 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 August 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | REPEAT FIRE |
| 28 August 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | HWY O FIRE |
| 21 August 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 August 2008 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 July 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 July 2009 | Fireworks | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | FOUR QUARTER CORNERS |
| 30 July 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Manawa: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thiel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
7 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Manawa in 7 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 tornado, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2024 | Flash Flood | Manawa | $260,000 | Rainfall amounts of 4 to 6 inches, combined with the failure of the Manawa Dam, caused flooding in Manawa during the late morning and early afternoon. |
| May 2025 | Hail | Manawa | - | Quarter size hail fell in Manawa. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Manawa | - | Nickel size hail fell near Manawa. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data. |
| June 2022 | Tornado (EF1) | Manawa | - | A tornado formed at 5:52 pm CDT near Manawa in central Waupaca County and continued northeast before dissipating at 5:56 pm CDT near Symco. Total path length is estimated to be 3.1 miles long, with a width of 120 yards. Peak wind estimated to be around 90 mph. |
| May 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Manawa | - | Thunderstorm winds downed trees and power lines in Manawa. |
| April 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Manawa | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Manawa | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Wolf (historical) | 3.1 miles | 7 | |
| Symco | 3.5 miles | 8 | |
| Royalton | 4.7 miles | 7 | |
| Baldwins Mill | 5.7 miles | 7 | |
| Ogdensburg | 6.0 miles | 8 | |
| Carmel | 6.6 miles | 7 | |
| Ostrander | 6.6 miles | 7 | |
| Nowell (historical) | 6.7 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 Manawa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1569741 | 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 1568931. 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.



