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Backus, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1976. It stands in Backus City. It lies in ZIP code area 56435. The Survey maps it on the Backus quadrangle. 263 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,345 feet above sea level.

Backus within Cass County

Population over time

2 figures

Backus grew from 250 to 263 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
2010250
2020263+13 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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

133 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 133 fires within 5 miles of Backus between 1992 and 2020, burning about 190 acres in total. None started naturally. 30 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 burning54
Arson/incendiarism30
Missing data/not specified/undetermined27
Equipment and vehicle use12
Recreation and ceremony5
Misuse of fire by a minor2
Other causes2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
8 September 2003Debris and open burning1.5 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 September 1998Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 August 2008Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 August 2001Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 August 1999Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
21 August 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
16 August 2006Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
20 July 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cass County

Storms near this place

32 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Backus in 32 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 23 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2022Thunderstorm WindBackus$50,000Extensive damage was reported to several farms and homes in the area.
August 2024HailBackus-The hail for upwards of 10 to 15 minutes.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindBackus-Multiple trees were downed by the winds. One of the trees was 12 inches in diameter was was laying over State Highway 87.
August 2016HailBackus-Quarter to ping pong size hail fell for 10 minutes in the Backus area.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindBackus-There were numerous trees blown down in Backus.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindBackus-A 10 to 12 diameter pine tree was blown down.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindBackus-There were several 3 diameter trees down.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindBackus-Five-inch diameter trees were blown down.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindBackus-Trees were blown down.
August 2024HailBackus-no account filed
August 2024HailBackus-no account filed
August 2024HailBackus-no account filed
June 2024HailBackus-no account filed
June 2024HailBackus-no account filed
June 2024HailBackus-no account filed
June 2024HailBackus-no account filed
June 2024HailBackus-no account filed
September 2021HailBackus-no account filed
July 2020HailBackus-no account filed
August 2020HailBackus-no account filed
July 2018HailBackus-no account filed
June 2015HailBackus-no account filed
June 2010HailBackus-no account filed
June 2010HailBackus-no account filed
June 2010HailBackus-no account filed
September 2008HailBackus-no account filed
June 2005HailBackus-no account filed
May 2001HailBackus-no account filed
July 1999HailBackus-no account filed
July 1998HailBackus-no account filed
June 1996Thunderstorm WindBackus-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindBackus-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cass 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
Mildred5.3 miles9
Oshawa6.6 miles9
Hackensack7.6 miles10
Chickamaw Beach8.7 miles10
Pine River9.2 miles10
Pontoria10.0 miles9
Graff17.2 miles9
Ah-gwah-ching17.7 miles10

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 BackusAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2153126The 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 655183. 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.

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.