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Bluffton, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Bluffton City. It lies in ZIP code area 56518. It stands on Bluff Creek. The Survey maps it on the Wadena quadrangle. 210 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,362 feet above sea level.

Bluffton within Otter Tail County

Population over time

2 figures

Bluffton grew from 207 to 210 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.

YearPeople Change
2010207
2020210+3 (+1%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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.

In the county-history sources

85 words on this township

The county-history sources names this settlement in its chapter on Bluffton City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

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 Bluffton City - it names this place 1 more 1 time.

Fires near this place

26 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Bluffton between 1992 and 2019, burning about 363 acres in total. None started naturally. 9 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
Arson/incendiarism9
Debris and open burning7
Equipment and vehicle use6
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
6 September 2013Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 June 1995Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 May 1992Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 May 2019Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
28 May 2009Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 May 2013Equipment and vehicle use8.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 April 2010Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Otter Tail 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 Bluffton: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Weniger PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Otter Tail County

Storms near this place

26 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bluffton in 26 storm reports between 1996 and 2024: 10 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 5 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 1998Thunderstorm WindBluffton$50,000In the Bluffton area, 5 miles of roads had to be reopened because of downed trees. Four barns were blown over and a tree fell on two cars.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindBluffton-Tops of trees snapped in Bluffton, MN. Wind speeds estimated.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindBluffton-Several trees were down across central Bluffton Township.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindBluffton-Peak winds were measured at the Wadena Airport /KADC/.
June 2021Thunderstorm WindBluffton-Large tree branches were snapped, and several small trees were blown down.
July 2017HailBluffton-Quarter to half dollar sized hail fell.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindBluffton-Large tree branches were blown down.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindBluffton-A horse shed was blown over.
August 2013Tornado (EF0)Bluffton-A tornado briefly touched down 100 yards northwest of the U. S. Highway 10 and highway 75 intersection. The vortex appeared to be roughly one mile to the north-northeast parallel to highway 75.
July 2010Thunderstorm WindBluffton-The wind gust was measured at the Wadena Airport.
July 2010Tornado (EF0)Bluffton-A brief tornado touchdown was viewed in the open fields about one mile west of the Wadena Airport (KADC). Maximum winds speed were estimated to 80 mph.
June 2010Tornado (EF1)Bluffton-This tornado tracked briefly to the north-northeast before a wet rear-flank downdraft overtook it as viewed and recorded by multiple storm chase teams. A second and more powerful tornado eventually formed from the parent supercell thunderstorm and impacted the the community of Wadena. Very heavy rains and damaging downdraft winds obscured the overall tornado path. However large tree limbs were broken down and smaller trees were uprooted by the event suggesting peak winds to 90 mph.
June 2010Tornado (EF4)Bluffton-This tornado touched down in Otter Tail County and tracked northeastward for about 2 miles before crossing into Wadena County just southwest of the Wadena city limits. The tornado developed rapidly into a multi-vortex wedge type tornado as it approached Wadena. The tornado continued in Wadena County another 8 miles and ended about 516 PM CDT. Otter Tail County received mainly extreme tree damage with peak winds estimated at 170 mph.
June 2006HailBluffton-Garden plants were heavily damaged.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindBluffton-A MNDOT RWIS sensor along U.S. Highway 10 measured the wind gust.
June 2005Tornado (F2)Bluffton-A potato warehouse was completely torn apart by the tornado and debris was scattered several hundred feet downwind (east). Other nearby structures were not seriously damaged. A turkey barn roof was also partially removed. Estimated wind speeds were around 150 mph.
July 2000Flash FloodBluffton-Heavy rain washed out several roads and flooded a couple of basements.
June 2022HailBluffton-no account filed
April 2020HailBluffton-no account filed
July 2020HailBluffton-no account filed
August 2015HailBluffton-no account filed
August 2013HailBluffton-no account filed
July 2012HailBluffton-no account filed
June 2006Thunderstorm WindBluffton-no account filed
July 2000HailBluffton-no account filed
October 1996HailBluffton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Otter Tail 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.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
West Wind Estates0.0 miles9
Topelius (historical)2.9 miles9
Deer Creek7.1 miles9
New York Mills8.3 miles9
Lyman9.0 miles9
Heinola9.3 miles9
Davies10.0 miles9
Leaf City (historical)13.1 miles9

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 BlufftonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2023585The 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 640313. 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.

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.