Bejou, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Bejou Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56516. The Survey maps it on the Bejou quadrangle. 84 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,220 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBejou fell from 89 to 84 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 | 89 | |
| 2020 | 84 | -5 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 9 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.
- 1954 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Bejou quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Lake Itasca quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
14 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 14 fires within 5 miles of Bejou between 1999 and 2014, burning about 5,136 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 May 2008 | Debris and open burning | 6.0 acres | Minnesota Agency | SUPPORT BEJOU |
| 18 May 2014 | Debris and open burning | 155 acres | Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District | NELSON PRAIRIE WEST |
| 16 May 2008 | Debris and open burning | 4.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 May 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 146 acres | Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District | NELSON PRIARIE WEST 1 |
| 14 May 2008 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District | NELSON DITCH |
| 30 April 1999 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 800 acres | Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District | WAUMBACH WMA |
| 27 April 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District | NELSON RAILROAD |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
30 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bejou in 30 storm reports between 1999 and 2020: 16 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 flood, 3 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2007 | Lightning | Bejou | $500,000 | Lightning struck the bell tower of a church in Bejou, igniting a fire in the tower. The fire spread throughout the building, causing a total loss. The building had been recently renovated. |
| August 2020 | Flood | Bejou | $5,000 | Runoff from heavy rain entered a home. |
| August 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Bejou | $5,000 | A brief touchdown pulled up tin on a barn roof. |
| April 2013 | Flood | Bejou | $5,000 | no account filed |
| March 2009 | Flood | Bejou | $5,000 | no account filed |
| April 2009 | Flood | Bejou | $5,000 | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bejou | $1,000 | Trees were blown down. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bejou | $200 | Branches were blown down. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bejou | - | A few trees were snapped in a shelterbelt. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bejou | - | Many 6 to 8 inch diameter tree branches were blown down. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bejou | - | A quonset was destroyed and trees were knocked down at a farmstead. |
| July 2012 | Hail | Bejou | - | The hail ranged in size from pea to golfball with very little wind. |
| June 2010 | Hail | Bejou | - | Golf ball to hen egg sized hail fell. |
| June 2010 | Tornado (EF0) | Bejou | - | The tornado tracked northeastward for roughly 4 miles, where it then crossed into Polk County at 407 PM CDT. The tornado continued in Polk County for another 2 miles. Several trees were knocked down in farm shelterbelts. The total track length was about 6 miles with peak winds estimated at 80 mph. |
| July 2006 | Hail | Bejou | - | Nickle to quarter sized hail fell. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bejou | - | Large branches were blown down along with power lines. |
| July 2002 | Tornado (F1) | Bejou | - | Numerous trees were uprooted. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| July 2012 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Bejou | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Bejou | - | 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.
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 Bejou | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2058080 | 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 639872. 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.




