Shell, Wyoming
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1993. It stands in the South Big Horn census division. It lies in ZIP code area 82441. It stands on Horse Creek. The Survey maps it on the Shell quadrangle. 74 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,219 feet above sea level.
On record in Shell
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 2 records
EJE Bridge over Shell Creeklisted 1985- Shell Community Halllisted 2022
Population over time
2 figuresShell fell from 83 to 74 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 | 83 | |
| 2020 | 74 | -9 (-11%) |
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.
- 1898 USGS Bald Mountain quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Bald Mountain quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1955 USGS Sheridan quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Sheridan quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1960 USGS Shell quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Sheridan quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Burgess Junction quadrangle1:100000
- 1979 USGS Burgess Junction quadrangle1:100000
- 1993 USGS Shell quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
25 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Shell between 1995 and 2020, burning about 752 acres in total. 9 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/undetermined | 10 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Debris and open burning | 6 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | 72 acres | Worland Field Office | DOUGLAS DRAW |
| 16 September 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Cody Field Office | WELDER |
| 16 September 1995 | Debris and open burning | 1.1 acres | Worland Field Office | SHELL |
| 2 August 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 acres | Cody Field Office | RED BUTTE |
| 19 August 2006 | Debris and open burning | 8.8 acres | Worland Field Office | CRYSTAL |
| 10 August 2012 | Natural | 2.3 acres | Cody Field Office | COYOTE DEN |
| 9 July 2014 | Natural | under an acre | Cody Field Office | BEAVER CREEK |
| 9 July 2014 | Natural | 3.5 acres | Wyoming State Forestry | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 18 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Shell: 12 occurrences, 4 unknowns, 1 past producer, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Uranium, Pumice, Gypsum-Anhydrite, Magnesite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shell Creek Canyon | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Pumice | Occurrence | ||
| Unknown | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Occurrence | ||
| Unknown | Magnesite | Occurrence | ||
| Big Hill Group | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Big Hill Group | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Big Hill Group | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Big Hill Group | Uranium | Unknown | ||
| Big Hill Group | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Big Hill Group | Uranium | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
7 since 2009Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Shell in 7 storm reports between 2009 and 2024: 5 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 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 | Shell | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shell | $3,000 | Trees were downed across U.S. Highway 14 between mile markers 20 and 21 in Shell Canyon. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shell | $2,500 | Trees and power lines were reported down near Beaver Creek west of Shell. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shell | $1,000 | A trained spotter along U.S. Highway 14 reported estimated winds around 70 mph and numerous branches blown off trees. |
| June 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shell | $500 | Large branches were blown off trees west of Shell. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Shell | - | Hail up to the size of pennies was reported by trained spotters north of Shell. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Shell | - | A 60 mph wind gust was reported at a remote automated weather station northeast of Shell on the western slope of the Bighorn Mountains. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flitners Corner | 4.4 miles | 16 | |
| Reeves Corner | 4.6 miles | 16 | |
| Greybull | 15.0 miles | 7 | |
| Basin | 17.4 miles | 7 | |
| Manderson | 20.8 miles | 9 | |
| Hyattville | 22.1 miles | 9 | |
| Otto | 27.7 miles | 7 | |
| Kane | 30.9 miles | 8 |
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 Shell | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q460703 | 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 1602866. 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.








