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Balaton, Minnesota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Rock Lake Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56115. The Survey maps it on the Balaton quadrangle. 595 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,542 feet above sea level.

Balaton within Lyon County

Population over time

2 figures

Balaton fell from 643 to 595 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
2010643
2020595-48 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 10 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.

In the county-history sources

771 words on this township

History of Lyon County, published 1884 names this settlement in its chapter on Rock Lake Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The bown was first settled in the spring of 1871 by the McNabbs from Canada, who located on section 14 on the north shore ot lake Yankton. This lake is smaller than Rock Lake and not so deep, but is an attractive body ot pure water, and furnishes much pleasure to the people of Balaton which is built on its south shore. In 1872 W. and E, Hamm, G. W. Linderman, C. Osborn, J. W. Lester, J. A. Van Fleet, J. T. Crouch, A. Town, Mr. McKay and Miss Lina Bishop were residents of the town. Other early settlers were W. Livingston, L. Town, G. A. Glotfelter, E. R. Weeks, L. Nichols, J. Abernethy, O. E. Persons and H. L. Gifiord.

Passage source: History of Lyon County, published 1884.

Rock Lake postoffice was established in 1874, R. Weeks, postmaster. The office was kept at Weeks' house in Lyons, however. He was succeeded by A. C. Dann in 1875, and during the same year J. A. Van Fleet was appointed, and removed the office to his house in Rock Lake. He was properly the first postmaster in the town. The office was discontinued in 1881, Balaton having sprung up with the building ot the D. C. railroad through the town, and the postoffice at tliat town supplying the territory heretofore supplied by the Rock Lake P. O.

Passage source: History of Lyon County, published 1884.

The Dakota Central railroad, a branch of the C. & N. W. which runs from Tracy to Pierre on the Missouri river, passes through Rock Lake from east to west, giving the town one station in Balaton. The Duluth road when completed will undoubtedly give the town a competing market in a station near hy on the west.

Passage source: History of Lyon County, published 1884.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Rock Lake Township.

Fires near this place

1 since 2013

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Balaton in 2013, burning about 65 acres in total. None 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
Debris and open burning1

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
12 May 2013Debris and open burning65 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lyon County

Storms near this place

17 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Balaton in 17 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 11 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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
August 2025Flash FloodBalaton-Heavy rainfall caused water to overrun 170th Street between 190th and 200th Avenue. The roadway was closed as water remained ponded over the road for several hours.
September 2017Thunderstorm WindBalaton-Trees downed.
June 2013HailBalaton-Large hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles, windows, roofs, and crops.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindBalaton-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage.
August 2012HailBalaton-Large hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles.
September 2010Flash FloodBalaton-Heavy rain of several inches over the southern part of Lyon County caused flash flooding of numerous roads, fields, and basements. The roads flooded included U.S. Highway 14 near Tracy and U.S. Highway 59 near Garvin.
May 2002Flash FloodBalaton-Fields and a few roads in the area were flooded after heavy rain.
May 1993HailBalaton-Several homes were damaged and many trees were uprooted east of Balaton.
May 1993Tornado (F1)Balaton-Several homes were damaged and many trees were uprooted east of Balaton.
August 2012HailBalaton-no account filed
June 2006HailBalaton-no account filed
June 2005HailBalaton-no account filed
June 2005HailBalaton-no account filed
July 2002HailBalaton-no account filed
July 1999HailBalaton-no account filed
July 1998HailBalaton-no account filed
June 1996HailBalaton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lyon 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
Garvin6.3 miles10
Burchard6.5 miles9
Russell7.3 miles9
Florence9.5 miles8
Lynd10.6 miles9
Amiret10.9 miles9
Tracy13.4 miles9
Village Park14.5 miles11

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 BalatonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1878003The 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 639591. 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.