Browns Valley, Minnesota
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1916 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Browns Valley City. It lies in ZIP code area 56219. The Survey maps it on the Browns Valley quadrangle. 558 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 988 feet above sea level.
On record in Browns Valley
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 2 records
Browns Valley Carnegie Public Librarylisted 1985
Fort Wadsworth Agency and Scout Headquarters Buildinglisted 1986
Population over time
2 figuresBrowns Valley fell from 589 to 558 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 | 589 | |
| 2020 | 558 | -31 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 13 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.
- 1916 USGS Peever quadrangle1:62500
- 1918 USGS Peever quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1953 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Browns Valley quadrangle1:24000
- 1977 USGS Browns Valley quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Wheaton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
13 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Browns Valley between 1999 and 2018, burning about 73 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 | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 July 2002 | Natural | under an acre | Sisseton Agency | EASTMANRD |
| 17 July 2010 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 3.8 acres | Sisseton Agency | MYRUM |
| 13 July 2014 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | EASTMAN |
| 14 June 2002 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Sisseton Agency | LAKETRAVER |
| 11 May 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | LINHARD |
| 7 April 2003 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Sisseton Agency | THISSEN |
| 27 April 2018 | Debris and open burning | 10 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | HANSEN |
| 27 April 2009 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Sisseton Agency | ST. JOHN |
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 Browns Valley: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaufman Pit & Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Browns Valley in 3 storm reports between 1994 and 1997: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Browns Valley | - | ,,,,,,,,Hail (0.75) |
| October 1994 | Tornado (F0) | Browns Valley | - | A small tornado traveled along an intermittent path east of Browns Valley damaging several buildings on a local farmstead. |
| June 1997 | Hail | Browns Valley | - | 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.
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 Browns Valley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q590215 | 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 659752. 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.






