Bigfork, Minnesota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1996. It stands in Bigfork City. It lies in ZIP code area 56628. It stands on Rice River. The Survey maps it on the Bigfork quadrangle. 400 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,309 feet above sea level.
On record in Bigfork
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 4 records
Bigfork Village Halllisted 2012
Marcell Ranger Stationlisted 1994
Scenic State Park CCC/WPA/Rustic Style Historic Resourceslisted 1992- Scenic State Park CCC/Rustic Style Service Yardlisted 1992
Population over time
2 figuresBigfork fell from 446 to 400 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 | 446 | |
| 2020 | 400 | -46 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 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.
- 1919 USGS Marcell quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Hibbing quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Hibbing quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Hibbing quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Hibbing quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Bigfork quadrangle1:24000
- 1976 USGS Bigfork quadrangle1:100000
- 1996 USGS Bigfork quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
31 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Bigfork between 1993 and 2020, burning about 38 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 1 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 | 13 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 5 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Natural | 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 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 August 1997 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 August 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 July 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 July 2010 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 May 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 May 1999 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | Chippewa National Forest | BIG FORK POWERLINE |
Storms near this place
16 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bigfork in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2022: 8 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | 1 hurt | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | A home was damaged when a large uprooted spruce tree fell on it. |
| August 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | A large tree was blown onto a house. The house received minor damages. |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | Numerous foot-diameter trees were blown down. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Bigfork | - | A wind gust of 30 knots was also measured. |
| June 2011 | Heavy Rain | Bigfork | - | Five and a quarter inches of rain fell since the previous night. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | Several trees were blown down. Wind speed is estimated. |
| August 2022 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Bigfork | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Effie | 6.6 miles | 8 | |
| Marcell | 10.6 miles | 10 | |
| Talmoon | 11.8 miles | 9 | |
| Alder | 12.9 miles | 10 | |
| Jessie Lake | 13.1 miles | 9 | |
| Spring Lake | 13.3 miles | 10 | |
| Bowstring | 15.8 miles | 9 | |
| Wirt | 16.2 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 Bigfork | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2233306 | 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 655384. 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.







