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Crookston, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1984. It stands in Crookston City. It lies in ZIP code area 56716. The Survey maps it on the Crookston quadrangle. 7,482 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 876 feet above sea level.

Crookston within Polk County

On record in Crookston

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 5 records

Population over time

2 figures

Crookston fell from 7,891 to 7,482 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
20107,891
20207,482-409 (-5%)

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.

Fires near this place

1 since 2012

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Crookston in 2012, burning about 1 acre in total. None 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
Arson/incendiarism1

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
17 March 2012Arson/incendiarism1.3 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Polk County

Storms near this place

60 of 69 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Crookston in 69 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 38 hail, 20 thunderstorm wind, 7 flash flood, 2 tornado. 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
May 2011Thunderstorm WindCrookston$400,000There were many reports of damage around Crookston, with many trees, power lines, and street signs blown over. A small shed was blown down and falling tree limbs damaged the roofs of numerous homes.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindCrookston$50,000Tree branches were blown down.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindCrookston$50,000Many trees and powerlines were blown down and several buildings were damaged. One tree fell on a car, totalling it. A portion of a brick building was blown over.
May 2005Tornado (F2)Crookston$10,000A tornado touched down north of Crookston, and created a west-to-east damage path. The tornado hit a well-constructed pole barn and then travelled into an open field. Several large trees were snapped in half. The estimated peak wind speed was 140 mph.
May 2016Flash FloodCrookston$5,000Streets and fields were flooded by around four inches of rain in several hours. There were reports of kayaking in the flooded streets.
July 2001Flash FloodCrookston$2,000Street flooding was reported in Crookston.
June 2024Flash FloodCrookston$1,000Law Enforcement reports standing water in roads, resulting in impassable streets downtown.
March 2009Flash FloodCrookston$1,000no account filed
June 1999Thunderstorm WindCrookston$500Several large trees were blown down.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindCrookston$200Branches were blown down.
June 2024Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Law Enforcement reports trees down in various sizes around Crookston.
April 2023FloodCrookston-Crookston gage, on the Red Lake River. Crested at 22.34 ft on April 17th at 14:55.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Large tree branches were blown down across the northern part of town.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Several large trees and a fence were blown down.
May 2016HailCrookston-The hail started as dime size and slowly got larger.
May 2016HailCrookston-The hailstones were possibly formed by several smaller stones merging together aloft.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindCrookston-A personal weather station recorded a wind gust of 80 mph. The strong winds wrecked havoc on the trees in the city of Crookston.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Large tree branches were blown down throughout Crookston. A door was also blown in at the Hugos grocery store. Wind speeds were estimated at 60 to 70 mph.
July 2009HailCrookston-The hail was reported at the University of Minnesota Crookston.
September 2007HailCrookston-The ground was covered with hail.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Zero visibility was reported in very high winds and rain.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Large tree limbs and power lines were blown down along the Polk and Red Lake County line.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Large tree branches were blown down near the University of Minnesota Crookston campus.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindCrookston-The roof was torn off a barn and two steel grain bins were blown down.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Several large trees were blown down by the strong wind. Shingles were torn off two homes.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindCrookston-The roofing and sidewalls were violently torn from two pole sheds and blown to the east. Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off.
June 2003Thunderstorm WindCrookston-A 6 inch diameter tree was blown down.
June 2002Flash FloodCrookston-Numerous county roads were under water.
June 2002LightningCrookston-A lightning strike knocked out the Polk county 911 system.
June 2002Flash FloodCrookston-U.S. Highway 2 was covered with water.
August 2002Flash FloodCrookston-Water flowed over county roads.
June 2000HailCrookston-Hail completely covered the ground.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindCrookston-A 19-year-old man was struck by lightning while driving a motorcycle along Highway 2 near Erskine and was killed. Another 17-year-old cyclist, traveling alongside the other, was injured.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindCrookston-Several trees were blown down by strong thunderstorm winds.
September 2020HailCrookston-no account filed
May 2018HailCrookston-no account filed
June 2010HailCrookston-no account filed
July 2009HailCrookston-no account filed
July 2009HailCrookston-no account filed
July 2009HailCrookston-no account filed
July 2009HailCrookston-no account filed
July 2009HailCrookston-no account filed
August 2006HailCrookston-no account filed
August 2006HailCrookston-no account filed
May 2005HailCrookston-no account filed
May 2005HailCrookston-no account filed
September 2005HailCrookston-no account filed
May 2004Thunderstorm WindCrookston-no account filed
June 2004HailCrookston-no account filed
September 2003HailCrookston-no account filed
September 2003HailCrookston-no account filed
April 2002HailCrookston-no account filed
June 2002HailCrookston-no account filed
May 2001HailCrookston-no account filed
August 2001HailCrookston-no account filed
August 2001HailCrookston-no account filed
September 2001HailCrookston-no account filed
August 2001HailCrookston-no account filed
August 2001HailCrookston-no account filed
June 1998HailCrookston-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Polk 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
Carman Terrace1.3 miles9
Noyes Junction1.4 miles9
Crookston Junction1.4 miles9
Forest Knolls Estates1.5 miles9
Anglim1.5 miles9
Riverview Terrace1.8 miles9
Wilds2.5 miles10
Hixon4.7 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 CrookstonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1626913The 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 642475. 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.

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.