BlockBefore

Lancaster, Minnesota

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1941 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Lancaster City. It lies in ZIP code area 56735. The Survey maps it on the Lancaster quadrangle. 364 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 909 feet above sea level.

Lancaster within Kittson County

On record in Lancaster

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

Population over time

2 figures

Lancaster grew from 340 to 364 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
2010340
2020364+24 (+7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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

84 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 84 fires within 5 miles of Lancaster between 1994 and 2020, burning about 7,298 acres in total. None started naturally. 62 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
Arson/incendiarism62
Debris and open burning17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Railroad operations and maintenance2

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
3 September 2012Debris and open burning3.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 August 2012Debris and open burning60 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
29 August 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 August 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
19 August 2012Arson/incendiarism5.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 July 2012Arson/incendiarism50 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 May 2015Debris and open burning2.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Kittson County

Storms near this place

30 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lancaster in 30 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 16 hail, 10 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. 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
June 2020FloodLancaster$50,000no account filed
July 2001Thunderstorm WindLancaster$1,000Branches were blown down and shingles were blown off a roof.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindLancaster$500Large branches were blown down.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindLancaster$500Trees were blown down in Lancaster.
June 2025HailLancaster-Picture with tape measure shared on social media.
June 2025HailLancaster-Hail estimated to be around 1 inch at gas station in Lancaster. Time estimated on radar.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindLancaster-Several trees were blown down.
August 2015HailLancaster-The hail was accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, which knocked down some small tree branches.
July 2010HailLancaster-The hail was mostly dime size, but a few quarter sized stones were mixed in.
September 2007Thunderstorm WindLancaster-One large poplar tree was knocked down.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindLancaster-The strong winds tore the trim off a building and knocked over several large trees.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindLancaster-Three grain bins were blown apart and thrown onto the nearby railroad tracks. An old garage was damaged and shingles were blown off a house.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindLancaster-Large branches were blown down at several farms.
July 2005Tornado (F0)Lancaster-The tornado was visible between lightning flashes.
July 2005Thunderstorm WindLancaster-Nearly 400 trees were uprooted. The trees fell onto buildings, power poles, and several small storage sheds. Some shingle damage was also reported.
July 2005Funnel CloudLancaster-A persistent wall cloud with pendant funnel was seen during lightning flashes.
May 2002Tornado (F0)Lancaster-The path length was not continuous and no damage was reported.
May 2010HailLancaster-no account filed
August 2004HailLancaster-no account filed
July 2004HailLancaster-no account filed
July 2003HailLancaster-no account filed
July 2002HailLancaster-no account filed
July 2002HailLancaster-no account filed
June 2001HailLancaster-no account filed
July 2001Thunderstorm WindLancaster-no account filed
July 2001HailLancaster-no account filed
May 2000HailLancaster-no account filed
July 1998HailLancaster-no account filed
July 1998HailLancaster-no account filed
May 1996HailLancaster-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Kittson 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
Orleans8.4 miles11
Hallock9.5 miles11
Viking Land Terrace9.7 miles11
Northcote10.5 miles13
Lake Bronson11.3 miles10
Chatham (historical)11.7 miles11
Enok14.3 miles11
Humboldt15.9 miles13

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 LancasterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1919987The 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 646463. 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.