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.
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
St. Nicholas Orthodox Churchlisted 1984
Population over time
2 figuresLancaster 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 340 | |
| 2020 | 364 | +24 (+7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 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.
- 1941 USGS Hallock quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1952 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1974 USGS Lancaster quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Hallock quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
84 since 1994Regional 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/incendiarism | 62 |
| Debris and open burning | 17 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | 60 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 August 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 August 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 July 2017 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 24 July 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 50 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 May 2015 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
30 since 1996Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2020 | Flood | Lancaster | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | $1,000 | Branches were blown down and shingles were blown off a roof. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | $500 | Large branches were blown down. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | $500 | Trees were blown down in Lancaster. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Lancaster | - | Picture with tape measure shared on social media. |
| June 2025 | Hail | Lancaster | - | Hail estimated to be around 1 inch at gas station in Lancaster. Time estimated on radar. |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | Several trees were blown down. |
| August 2015 | Hail | Lancaster | - | The hail was accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, which knocked down some small tree branches. |
| July 2010 | Hail | Lancaster | - | The hail was mostly dime size, but a few quarter sized stones were mixed in. |
| September 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | One large poplar tree was knocked down. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | The strong winds tore the trim off a building and knocked over several large trees. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | 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 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | Large branches were blown down at several farms. |
| July 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Lancaster | - | The tornado was visible between lightning flashes. |
| July 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | Nearly 400 trees were uprooted. The trees fell onto buildings, power poles, and several small storage sheds. Some shingle damage was also reported. |
| July 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Lancaster | - | A persistent wall cloud with pendant funnel was seen during lightning flashes. |
| May 2002 | Tornado (F0) | Lancaster | - | The path length was not continuous and no damage was reported. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Lancaster | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Lancaster | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orleans | 8.4 miles | 11 | |
| Hallock | 9.5 miles | 11 | |
| Viking Land Terrace | 9.7 miles | 11 | |
| Northcote | 10.5 miles | 13 | |
| Lake Bronson | 11.3 miles | 10 | |
| Chatham (historical) | 11.7 miles | 11 | |
| Enok | 14.3 miles | 11 | |
| Humboldt | 15.9 miles | 13 |
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 Lancaster | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1919987 | 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 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.






