Garfield, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Garfield City. It lies in ZIP code area 56332. The Survey maps it on the Alexandria West quadrangle. 349 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,421 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresGarfield fell from 354 to 349 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 | 354 | |
| 2020 | 349 | -5 (-1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Alexandria West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1986 USGS Lake Minnewaska quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
26 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Garfield between 1992 and 2020, burning about 329 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 | 22 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 July 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1.1 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 June 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 1998 | Debris and open burning | 60 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 May 1999 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 May 2002 | Debris and open burning | 2.8 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 May 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 May 2007 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 May 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
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 Garfield: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Okerlund Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
18 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Garfield in 18 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 1 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 1996 | Tornado (F1) | Garfield | 2 hurt | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Power lines were blown down in Garfield. |
| October 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | No damage reports were received. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Power lines were blown down northeast of Garfield. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Large pine trees were uprooted along Interstate 94 south of Garfield. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Several large trees were blown down west of Garfield, along County Road 82. |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | A large shed under construction was partially destroyed. The damage occurred on Halverson Road, south of County Road 82, east of Brandon. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Twelve trees were downed. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Fifty trees were downed near Pilgrim Point off County Road 34 on the shore of Lake Ida. A campground on the point sustained damage to its dining hall including blown out windows. In addition, a car was damaged by a downed tree, power lines were downed, and a propane tank was uplifted. |
| August 2002 | Hail | Garfield | - | Hail covered ground. |
| May 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Garfield | - | Several trees were blown down due to strong thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Garfield | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Garfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Garfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Hail | Garfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Garfield | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Garfield | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Hail | Garfield | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon | 5.9 miles | 9 | |
| Alexandria | 7.2 miles | 9 | |
| Leaf Valley | 7.7 miles | 9 | |
| Holmes City | 7.8 miles | 8 | |
| Hiview Park | 8.2 miles | 11 | |
| Millerville | 9.5 miles | 9 | |
| Carlos | 10.8 miles | 11 | |
| Evansville | 11.0 miles | 9 |
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 Garfield | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1924336 | 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 644037. 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.




