Blue Earth, Minnesota

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Blue Earth City. It lies in ZIP code area 56013. It stands on Badger Creek. The Survey maps it on the Blue Earth quadrangle. 3,174 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,089 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Blue Earth within Faribault County

On record in Blue Earth

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

Church of the Good Shepherd-Episcopallisted 1980
Memorial Librarylisted 1988
Faribault County Courthouselisted 1977
James B. Wakefield Houselisted 1980

Population over time

2 figures

Blue Earth fell from 3,353 to 3,174 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	3,353
2020	3,174	-179 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 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.

1954 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Blue Earth quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1985 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:100000

In the county-history sources

6,978 words on this township

The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896 names this settlement in its chapter on Blue Earth City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Following events in their order, we now record the fact that Blue Earth City, the only village in the township, and the oldest in the county, was surveyed and platted in July, 1856, and the first buildings were erected in that year. The founding of the village preceded the organization and naming of the township. The original proprietors and founders of the village were James B. Wakefield, Henry P. Constans, Samuel V. Hibler and Spier Spencer.

Passage source: The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896.

By the act organizing the county, the county seat was located at Blue Earth City, and the question of location was voted upon at the next general election, which was held in October, 1856, and was decided unanimously in favor of Blue Earth City. The question of removal of the county seat from Blue Earth City to Winnebago City voted upon at the general election of 18G1, and a large majority of the votes proved to be against removal, and the capital of the county has remained, from the first, at this village. But our general history of the county will show that many subsequent attempts have been made to remove the county seat.

Passage source: The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896.

By act of the legislature, approved March 1st, 187L*, the village of Blue Earth City was incorporated, subject, however, to ratification or rejection by the voters of the township, at the next ensuing town meeting, which was held in March. The act was ratified, but remained inoperative, until an election of village oflScers. The first election for village officers, under this charter, was held April 1st, 1874, when the following officers were elected: J. H. Sprout, president; S. S. Burleson, H. P. Constans and S. PfefTer, trustees; Alex. Anderson, recorder, and D. P. Goodrich, justice of the peace.

Passage source: The History of Faribault County, Minnesota : from Its First Settlement to the Close of the Year 1879 : the Story of the Pioneers, published 1896.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Blue Earth City - it names this place 40 more 40 times.

Storms near this place

44 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blue Earth in 44 storm reports between 1994 and 2023: 18 hail, 15 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 3 heavy rain. 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 1997	Tornado (F0)	Blue Earth	$100,000	2 farmsteads damaged.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	$5,000	Several large tree branches were blown down, and caused a garage roof to be damaged in the city of Blue Earth, Minnesota.
April 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	$5,000	Tree down on car.
April 2016	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	$2,000	Large tree branches were blown down, with a trailer tossed near Blue Earth.
June 2014	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Several large trees were blown down into houses and vehicles.
May 2012	Lightning	Blue Earth	-	Two people were killed in a house fire in Blue Earth, Minnesota, Sunday morning around 5 a.m. The deceased were a 39 year old male, and a 47 year old male. An investigation found the cause of the fire had been a lightning strike to the home, which had no functioning smoke detectors.
September 2012	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	A Minnesota Department of Transportation weather sensor, along Interstate 90, measured a wind gust of 58 mph.
March 2011	Flood	Blue Earth	-	Several county roads became impassable due to Spring snow melt and rainfall around the Blue Earth River.
March 2010	Flood	Blue Earth	-	Several roads along Coon Creek were flooded due to an ice jam.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	A storm spotter measured a 53 knot wind gust.
June 2010	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Numerous trees were blown down in the city of Blue Earth, Minnesota.
July 2010	Heavy Rain	Blue Earth	-	An observer measured 2.00 inches of rainfall in six hours.
September 2010	Heavy Rain	Blue Earth	-	A cooperative observer measured 4.92 inches of rainfall in less than 5 hours.
May 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Trees down.
July 2007	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	About one dozen trees down.
August 2006	Flash Flood	Blue Earth	-	Four to five inches of rain resulted in U.S. Highway 169 closing briefly due to 2-3 feet of water on roadway. Street flooding with water running into basements. Manhole blown off and water running into basement windows.
August 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Three inch diameter branches were downed.
September 2005	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Tree branches were downed.
May 2004	Heavy Rain	Blue Earth	-	A spotter reported 3.25 inches of rain.
July 2003	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Gust measured by MNDOT Road Weather System.
June 2002	Flash Flood	Blue Earth	-	Two feet of water on city streets. Manhole covers blown off sewers.
July 2002	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Several trees down.
July 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	Trees and power lines down.
May 1998	Tornado (F1)	Blue Earth	-	Brief touchdown tore roof off metal structure at canning plant.
June 1998	Flash Flood	Blue Earth	-	Between 3 and 4 inches of rain resulted in street flooding.
August 1994	Hail	Blue Earth	-	Golfball size hail reported 6 miles east of Blue Earth.
August 2023	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 2020	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 2019	Thunderstorm Wind	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
April 2010	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 2010	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 2009	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 2007	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
October 2006	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
October 2006	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 2004	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
July 2002	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
May 2001	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 1999	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
May 1998	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 1997	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 1996	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed
June 1995	Hail	Blue Earth	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Faribault 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
Riverside Heights	1.9 miles	7
Marna	5.5 miles	6
Guckeen	6.6 miles	7
Elmore	9.2 miles	6
Winnebago	9.6 miles	7
Huntley	9.7 miles	7
Frost	10.0 miles	8
Dell	10.0 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 Blue Earth	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q885694	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 640284. 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.

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.