Birch Beach, Minnesota

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1976. It stands in Prosper Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56686. The Survey maps it on the Williams NW quadrangle. It stands 1,070 feet above sea level.

Birch Beach within Lake of the Woods County

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 7 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.

1918 USGS Williams quadrangle1:62500
1954 USGS Roseau quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1957 USGS Roseau quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Roseau quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Williams NW quadrangle1:24000
1976 USGS Baudette quadrangle1:100000

Fires near this place

16 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of Birch Beach between 1999 and 2020, burning about 257 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 5 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	6
Arson/incendiarism	5
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1
Smoking	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
3 September 2017	Arson/incendiarism	1.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
3 September 2017	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
26 August 2007	Natural	20 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
17 August 2003	Debris and open burning	152 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
10 July 1999	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
2 June 2002	Debris and open burning	3.0 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
14 June 2016	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named
5 May 2013	Debris and open burning	1.6 acres	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources	not named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake of the Woods County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Birch Beach: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Terhark Pit and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Lake of the Woods 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Long Point	2.3 miles	7
Arnesén	7.2 miles	9
Williams	12.8 miles	8
Wheelers Point	14.7 miles	7
Hackett	14.7 miles	7
Graceton	15.4 miles	8
Pitt	19.3 miles	8
Baudette	24.2 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 Birch Beach	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4915640	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 640156. 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.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.