Boy River, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1996. It stands in Boy River City. It lies in ZIP code area 56672. The Survey maps it on the Boy River quadrangle. 26 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,329 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresBoy River fell from 47 to 26 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 | 47 | |
| 2020 | 26 | -21 (-45%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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.
- 1954 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Boy River quadrangle1:24000
- 1977 USGS Cass Lake quadrangle1:100000
- 1996 USGS Boy River quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
57 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 57 fires within 5 miles of Boy River between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,012 acres in total. None started naturally. 25 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/incendiarism | 25 |
| Debris and open burning | 22 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| 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 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Chippewa National Forest | BOY LAKE |
| 31 August 2006 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 May 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Chippewa National Forest | CO-8 FIRE |
| 7 May 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Chippewa National Forest | PIKE BAY FIRE |
| 6 May 1992 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Chippewa National Forest | not named |
| 5 May 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.5 acres | Chippewa National Forest | NEIGHBORHOOD FIRE |
| 5 May 1996 | Arson/incendiarism | 1,242 acres | Chippewa National Forest | BOY RIVER |
| 4 May 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.9 acres | Chippewa National Forest | EAST BOY RIVER |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Boy River: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Peat. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cass County Peat Deposits | Peat | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
5 since 2013Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Boy River in 5 storm reports between 2013 and 2025: 4 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Boy River | - | Multiple trees were knocked down on County Road 63 in Boy River Township. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Boy River | - | no account filed |
| August 2022 | Hail | Boy River | - | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Hail | Boy River | - | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Hail | Boy River | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tobique | 5.7 miles | 11 | |
| Federal Dam | 7.1 miles | 9 | |
| Elevenmile Corner | 9.0 miles | 10 | |
| Brevik | 10.6 miles | 9 | |
| Bena | 12.7 miles | 9 | |
| Inguadona | 12.8 miles | 10 | |
| Remer | 13.4 miles | 10 | |
| Longville | 13.4 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 Boy River | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2039312 | 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 655504. 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.





