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Oconto, Wisconsin

8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Oconto City. It lies in ZIP code area 54153. It lies near Ajax Island. The Survey maps it on the Oconto East quadrangle. 4,609 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 584 feet above sea level.

Oconto within Oconto County

On record in Oconto

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 12 of 13 shown

Every listing in Oconto County

Population over time

2 figures

Oconto grew from 4,513 to 4,609 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
20104,513
20204,609+96 (+2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 8 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

66 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of Oconto between 1993 and 2020, burning about 338 acres in total. None started naturally. 11 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 burning22
Equipment and vehicle use21
Arson/incendiarism11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Smoking2
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Other causes1
Fireworks1
Recreation and ceremony1

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
5 August 2004Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 August 2014Fireworksunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesCOUNTY Y FIRE
10 August 1997Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 July 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 July 2017Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesYOUNG ROAD FIRE
16 July 2009Arson/incendiarismunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 June 2019Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesFROG POND FIRE
17 June 2009Debris and open burningunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Oconto County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Oconto: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Shuch PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Oconto County

Storms near this place

37 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oconto in 37 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 17 flood, 10 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado. The reports record 1 injury. 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
March 1998HailOconto1 hurtno account filed
December 2019FloodOconto$384,000An ice jam and high river stages produced flooding in the city of Oconto. The high water mainly affected Pecor, McDonald, Water, Turner, Ontario, Bridge, First and Second streets. The mobile home park on Farnsworth Avenue also Flooded. Washington Street by the Oconto County Courthouse also flooded as storm sewers overflowed.
January 2020FloodOconto$96,000An ice jam and high river stages produced flooding in the city of Oconto. The high water mainly affected Pecor, McDonald, Water, Turner, Ontario, Bridge, First and Second streets. The mobile home park on Farnsworth Avenue also Flooded. Washington Street by the Oconto County Courthouse also flooded as storm sewers overflowed.
July 2013Tornado (EF0)Oconto$25,000A tornado touched down just east of Highway 41 near Swede Town Road and County Road A in Oconto County and moved along an eastward path toward the bay. The tornado was observed by an eyewitness. Dozens of trees were snapped and uprooted along the path of the tornado (DI 27, DOD 3-4 and DI 28, DOD 3-4). The tornado also blew over a recreational vehicle trailer. Average path width of the tornado was 75 yards.
June 1998Thunderstorm WindOconto$2,000no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindOconto$2,000no account filed
May 1998LightningOconto$1,000no account filed
July 2025Tornado (EF0)Oconto-A tornado touched down west of Oconto at 6:00 PM CDT. The tornado tracked northeast and snapped and uprooted several trees before dissipating just north of Oconto at 6:04 PM CDT. The tornado uprooted several trees at a local golf course northwest of Oconto. Total path length is estimated to be 2.37 miles long, with a width of 65 yards. Peak wind estimated to be around 77 mph.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindOconto-Thunderstorm winds downed trees in Oconto. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
March 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to record high lake levels.
May 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to record high lake levels.
April 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to record high lake levels.
January 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to high lake levels.
February 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to record high lake levels.
July 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road and County Highway Y from Harbor Road to County Highway A are closed due to ongoing flooding from record high lake levels.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindOconto-Thunderstorm winds downed trees and power lines in Oconto. The time of this report is an estimate based on radar data.
August 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road and County Highway Y from Harbor Road to County Highway A are closed due to ongoing flooding from record high lake levels.
September 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road and County Highway Y from Harbor Road to County Highway A are closed due to ongoing flooding from high lake levels.
June 2020FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road and County Highway Y from Harbor Road to County Highway A are closed due to ongoing flooding from record high lake levels.
October 2019FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to high lake levels.
August 2019HailOconto-Walnut size hail fell in Oconto.
September 2019FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to high lake levels.
December 2019FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to high lake levels.
November 2019FloodOconto-North Bayshore Road was often under water due to high lake levels.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOconto-Thunderstorm winds overturned a pickup truck that was pulling a large trailer on Highway 41 near exit 198 outside of Oconto.
August 2015HailOconto-Hail as large as quarter size fell at Oconto.
August 2015HailOconto-Quarter size hail fell just to the west of Oconto.
June 2012HailOconto-Thunderstorms produced quarter size hail at Oconto.
June 2012Funnel CloudOconto-A funnel cloud was spotted over Oconto.
March 2007FloodOconto-no account filed
June 2004HailOconto-no account filed
September 2004HailOconto-no account filed
May 1998HailOconto-no account filed
July 1996HailOconto-no account filed
July 1996FloodOconto-no account filed
August 1995Thunderstorm WindOconto-no account filed
May 1995HailOconto-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Oconto 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
Pensaukee5.1 miles8
Cullen5.2 miles8
County Line7.1 miles8
Oak Orchard8.0 miles8
Brookside9.1 miles8
Stiles Junction9.7 miles8
Stiles9.9 miles8
Lena10.6 miles8

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 OcontoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1003715The 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 1570741. 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.