BlockHeron Lake, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Heron Lake City. It lies in ZIP code area 56137. The Survey maps it on the Heron Lake quadrangle. 602 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,421 feet above sea level.
On record in Heron Lake
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 1 record
Church of the Sacred Heart (Catholic)listed 1989
Population over time
2 figuresHeron Lake fell from 698 to 602 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 | 698 | |
| 2020 | 602 | -96 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 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.
- 1954 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Heron Lake quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Worthington quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
4,570 words on this townshipAn Illustrated History of Jackson County, Minnesota, published 1910 names this settlement in its chapter on Heron Lake City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
While the country along the Des Moines river in Jackson county was settled in a very early day, the prairie country re- ^ mained unsettled until long afterward. In fact, only a few had builded homes in that part of the county surrounding the future village of Heron Lake until a year or two before the town was founded. When, in 1870, there was great activity in railway circles and it was rumored that the 8t. Paul & Sioux City road would extend its line through southwestern Minnesota, passing just to the north of Heron lake, some far sighted people began to locate homesteads in the prairie country about Heron lake. Said the Jackson Republic of April 2, 1870 : '^At Heron lake, in the northwest corner of the county, there is quite a settlement; the prospect of the early completion of the St. Paul & Sioux City railroad and the possibility that it will pass in this vicinity have called here a good number of settlers.'*
Passage source: An Illustrated History of Jackson County, Minnesota, published 1910.
The track of the Sioux City & St. Paul railroad was not laid through Jackson county until the fall of 1871, but in the spring of that year the route was selected and sites for stationt? chosen. It was apparently the first intention of the company to locate the principal town on section 9, Alba township, which was to be called Sibley. The first mention the press makes of this site was on June 10. A little later the Heron Lake site was chosen and the intention of establishing the Sibley station was given up.* The Heron Lake site was selected late in June,* but nothing was done toward platting or building a town there until a short time before the tracklaying was completed in the fall.
Passage source: An Illustrated History of Jackson County, Minnesota, published 1910.
While the surveyors were yet dividing the land into blocks and lots and before the railroad was completed to the prospective town, in the month of October, the first inhabitants came. They were John T. Smith and C. H. Carroll, who had been conducting a store at Big Bend, in Cottonwood county, to which place it had been believed the railroad would build. The route having been changed and Heron Lake selected as a site for a town, Messrs. Smith and Carroll abandoned their location at Big Bend and came to engage in business in the new town. They found the site raw prairie land, without a stick on it, and had to burn a strip of prairie grass to get a place to pile their lumber. Mr. Smith bought a lot on Main street - the first lot sold in the new town - ^but had to
Passage source: An Illustrated History of Jackson County, Minnesota, published 1910.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Heron Lake City - it names this place 17 more 17 times.
Storms near this place
29 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Heron Lake in 29 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 14 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 2 heavy rain. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2014 | Flood | Heron Lake | $50,000 | Persistent moderate to heavy rain caused flooding of fields and other lowlands, including several roads, homes, and businesses. This flooding lasted for two days, and was aggravated locally by additional storms during that time. Some roads were damaged or washed out. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | $20,000 | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several trees blown down. One tree fell on and damaged a house. A pipe was impaled into the wall of a house. The winds also destroyed a small shed. |
| September 2020 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | Strong winds were also noted by the spotter, but did not result in damage. |
| August 2015 | Heavy Rain | Heron Lake | - | Heavy rainfall os 3.50 inches was reported. |
| April 2011 | Flood | Heron Lake | - | Flooding of lakes, streams and lowlands, including some farmland, continued in the county through April. The Des Moines River was at its highest level of 2.6 feet above flood stage at Jackson on April 1st. Lake and lowland flooding continued with very slow improvement. Several roads remained flooded. High water and groundwater levels resulting from record precipitation in the previous year was the main reason that the flooding either grew worse or improved so slowly. |
| March 2011 | Flood | Heron Lake | - | Melting of a heavy winter snow cover caused flooding of the Des Moines River, as well as flooding of lowlands, lakes, and streams. The Des Moines River crested at 3.59 feet above flood stage at Jackson on March 26th. There was considerable flooding of farmland. Numerous roads in the county were flooded. Some of the roads were closed, and some were washed out in spots. The flooding onset was rapid for a snow melt flood due to high water and groundwater levels from record precipitation in the year 2010. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several limbs blown down. The winds also moved patio furniture. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including one tree blown down. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including up to 5 inch diameter branches blown down. |
| September 2005 | Flash Flood | Heron Lake | - | Heavy rain caused widespread flooding of roads and fields, with basement flooding also reported. |
| April 2004 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | Large hail was reported at Wilder. |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree damage. Damage to power lines from tree debris and directly from the wind resulted in a power outage. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, with several branches down. |
| April 2001 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | Large hail accumulated at least two inches over a stretch of several miles. The hail accumulation produced shallow but dense fog, which persisted for at least an hour. Damage to vehicles and other property was suspected, but no damage estimates were available. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage. The amount of damage was not known. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| October 2013 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Funnel Cloud | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| April 2000 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Heavy Rain | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 1994 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 1994 | Hail | Heron Lake | - | 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 Heron Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2161039 | 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 644907. 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.
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.