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.
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
Roosevelt Halllisted 1985
Population over time
2 figuresBarrett 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 415 | |
| 2020 | 366 | -49 (-12%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1911 USGS Barrett quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1973 USGS Elbow Lake quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Lake Minnewaska quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 2000Regional 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 burning | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Other causes | 1 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Fergus Falls Wetland Management District | STEINLICHT |
| 7 April 2010 | Debris and open burning | 37 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 March 2000 | Other causes | 13 acres | Fergus Falls Wetland Management District | BLAKESLEY |
| 21 March 2012 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
22 since 1997Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2003 | Lightning | Barrett | 1 hurt, $10,000 | A 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 2022 | Tornado (EF2) | Barrett | $2,000,000 | This 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 2007 | Lightning | Barrett | $20,000 | Lightning 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 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | $5,000 | Powerlines were blown down in the thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | - | Wind gust estimated by trained spotter. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | - | Large trees were blown down, and a shed was destroyed. |
| August 2019 | Funnel Cloud | Barrett | - | A brief funnel cloud was observed. |
| July 2015 | Funnel Cloud | Barrett | - | The funnel was observed from Herman. |
| July 2011 | Heavy Rain | Barrett | - | Up to a foot of water was reported on highway 59 north of Barrett. |
| May 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | - | Three 18 inch diameter trees were blown down. |
| June 2005 | Tornado (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 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | - | A tree fell on a garage. |
| August 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | - | Large branches were blown down. |
| June 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Barrett | - | Intermittent touchdowns were reported by the sheriff's office. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Hail | Barrett | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thorsborg (historical) | 4.7 miles | 10 | |
| Erdahl | 6.8 miles | 10 | |
| Elbow Lake | 7.4 miles | 10 | |
| Hoffman | 7.6 miles | 10 | |
| Ashby | 13.2 miles | 13 | |
| Wendell | 14.1 miles | 10 | |
| Hereford (historical) | 15.1 miles | 9 | |
| Herman | 15.1 miles | 10 |
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 Barrett | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1958812 | 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 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.





