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Barrett, Minnesota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1911 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Barrett City. It lies in ZIP code area 56311. The Survey maps it on the Elbow Lake quadrangle. 366 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,168 feet above sea level.

Barrett within Grant County

On record in Barrett

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Barrett fell from 415 to 366 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
2010415
2020366-49 (-12%)

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.

Fires near this place

4 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Barrett between 2000 and 2012, burning about 62 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 burning2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Other causes1

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
29 May 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresFergus Falls Wetland Management DistrictSTEINLICHT
7 April 2010Debris and open burning37 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 March 2000Other causes13 acresFergus Falls Wetland Management DistrictBLAKESLEY
21 March 2012Debris and open burning10 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Grant County

Storms near this place

22 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Barrett in 22 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 7 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 2 lightning. 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
June 2003LightningBarrett1 hurt, $10,000A 7 year-old girl was injured after lightning struck her family's home. The lightning hit a television antenna, cracked the ceiling, and burned a wall behind the girl. The strike also started a fire in the dining room. The girl suffered minor burns on her back and right shoulder.
May 2022Tornado (EF2)Barrett$2,000,000This tornado was wrapped in damaging downburst winds and rain as it rapidly tracked northeast for roughly 6 miles to around 3 SE of Elbow Lake by 419 pm CDT. Numerous wooden single and double X-Braced power poles were snapped, including a nearly 2-mile stretch of double pole structures along 240th street, as a broader downburst wind pattern developed. Numerous trees of all kinds were snapped or uprooted. Several farm buildings and grain bins were destroyed. Max winds to 120 mph, Max width to 350 yards.
September 2007LightningBarrett$20,000Lightning struck an evergreen tree in Barrett, scattering pieces of the tree across several neighboring yards. As the tree fell, it broke multiple windows and damaged the concrete steps to a house. The strike also damaged the electrical systems in three nearby homes. One home lost a microwave, two televisions, and several other smaller appliances.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindBarrett$5,000Powerlines were blown down in the thunderstorm winds.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindBarrett-Wind gust estimated by trained spotter.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindBarrett-Large trees were blown down, and a shed was destroyed.
August 2019Funnel CloudBarrett-A brief funnel cloud was observed.
July 2015Funnel CloudBarrett-The funnel was observed from Herman.
July 2011Heavy RainBarrett-Up to a foot of water was reported on highway 59 north of Barrett.
May 2006Thunderstorm WindBarrett-Three 18 inch diameter trees were blown down.
June 2005Tornado (F1)Barrett-A brief touchdown occurred near Pomme De Terre River. A few trees were knocked over by winds estimated to be around 100 mph.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindBarrett-A tree fell on a garage.
August 2005Thunderstorm WindBarrett-Large branches were blown down.
June 2001Tornado (F0)Barrett-Intermittent touchdowns were reported by the sheriff's office.
July 2011HailBarrett-no account filed
July 2009HailBarrett-no account filed
August 2005HailBarrett-no account filed
April 2002HailBarrett-no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindBarrett-no account filed
July 1998HailBarrett-no account filed
June 1998HailBarrett-no account filed
August 1997HailBarrett-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Grant 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
Thorsborg (historical)4.7 miles10
Erdahl6.8 miles10
Elbow Lake7.4 miles10
Hoffman7.6 miles10
Ashby13.2 miles13
Wendell14.1 miles10
Hereford (historical)15.1 miles9
Herman15.1 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 BarrettAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1958812The 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 639644. 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.