Big Falls, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1978. It stands in the South Koochiching unorganized territory. It lies in ZIP code area 56627. The Survey maps it on the Big Falls quadrangle. 175 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,217 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBig Falls fell from 236 to 175 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 | 236 | |
| 2020 | 175 | -61 (-26%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 7 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.
- 1919 USGS Margie quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS International Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS International Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS International Falls quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1971 USGS Big Falls quadrangle1:24000
- 1978 USGS Littlefork quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
25 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Big Falls between 1992 and 2017, burning about 36 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 12 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 5 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2006 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 September 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 September 2006 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 24 September 1992 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 September 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 September 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 September 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 August 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
10 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Big Falls in 10 storm reports between 1994 and 2018: 6 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Big Falls | - | A few trees were blown down along State Highway 6. |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Big Falls | - | Two trees were blown down across the road. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Big Falls | - | The hail fell for ten minutes. |
| June 1997 | Lightning | Big Falls | - | Lightning struck an electrical feeder line, causing a fire that destroyed a house. No dollar estimate was available, and no one was injured. |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Big Falls | - | A line of thunderstorms moved across Western Koochiching County uprooting several trees in an area one-forth mile long by 100 yards wide just to the north of Big Falls. In addition to the uprooted trees, numerous large trees were snapped at a height of six to ten feet. Damage was all facing to the northwest. |
| May 2008 | Hail | Big Falls | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Hail | Big Falls | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Big Falls | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Big Falls | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Big Falls | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Falls | 0.9 miles | 7 | |
| Sturgeon River Landing | 4.5 miles | 7 | |
| Ben Linn Landing | 5.9 miles | 7 | |
| Hendrickson Landing | 7.5 miles | 7 | |
| Margie | 9.7 miles | 7 | |
| Wisner | 10.6 miles | 7 | |
| Lindford | 15.2 miles | 7 | |
| Gates Corner | 15.8 miles | 8 |
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 Big Falls | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2346762 | 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 640086. 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.





