Finlayson, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Finlayson City. It lies in ZIP code area 55735. The Survey maps it on the Finlayson quadrangle. 295 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,109 feet above sea level.
On record in Finlayson
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
Northern Pacific Depotlisted 1980
John A. Oldenburg Houselisted 1978
Population over time
2 figuresFinlayson fell from 315 to 295 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 | 315 | |
| 2020 | 295 | -20 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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.
- 1953 USGS Duluth quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Duluth quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Sandstone quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Sandstone quadrangle1:100000
- 1981 USGS Finlayson quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
190 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 190 fires within 5 miles of Finlayson between 1992 and 2020, burning about 408 acres in total. None started naturally. 48 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 71 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 48 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 34 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 24 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Other causes | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 September 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 September 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 August 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 August 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
17 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Finlayson in 17 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 11 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | Hail | Finlayson | - | Hail was mainly dime to quarter size with the largest hail stones being 1.5 inches in diameter. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Finlayson | - | A cluster of trees were snapped at the base along with a spruce tree being uprooted. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Finlayson | - | A couple of large spruce trees were downed. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Finlayson | - | Multiple trees were downed in Finlayson by the storm. The trees were mostly dead birch and tamarack, but a few live popple trees were uprooted as well. |
| July 2016 | Flash Flood | Finlayson | - | The Pine County Sheriff's Office reported water over the road near the intersection of Highway 61 and Eds Road. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Finlayson | - | Several trees were blown down. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Finlayson | - | About 50 homes lost power as trees fell on power lines. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| July 2025 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Finlayson | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Finlayson | - | 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 Finlayson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2230927 | 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 643633. 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.




