Lutsen, Minnesota
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1977. It stands in Lutsen Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55612. It stands on Alfred Creek. The Survey maps it on the Lutsen quadrangle. 220 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 669 feet above sea level.
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Population over time
2 figuresLutsen grew from 190 to 220 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 | 190 | |
| 2020 | 220 | +30 (+16%) |
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.
- 1919 USGS Lutsen quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Two Harbors quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Two Harbors quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Two Harbors quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Lutsen quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1964 USGS Two Harbors quadrangle1:250000
- 1977 USGS Grand Marais quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
23 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Lutsen between 1995 and 2020, burning about 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 10 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 August 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Superior National Forest | WHITE SKY ROCK |
| 8 July 2009 | Smoking | under an acre | Superior National Forest | LAKE AGNES |
| 29 July 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Superior National Forest | AGNES LAKE |
| 13 July 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Superior National Forest | CARIBOU CREEK |
| 29 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Superior National Forest | CARIBOU 1 |
| 19 June 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Superior National Forest | OVERLOOK |
| 9 May 2010 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Superior National Forest | PENINSULA POINT |
| 7 May 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Superior National Forest | LAST CHANCE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
20 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Lutsen in 20 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 7 hail, 2 flood, 2 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 2013 | Flash Flood | Lutsen | $100,000 | Thunderstorm heavy rain resulted in flash flooding along and near the Cascade River and Highway 61 and near Cascade State Park. Water was flowing over Highway 61 and mile marker 104. Part of the highway was washed out. Other county roads in the area were damaged. There was also some cabin and road/driveway damage at Cascade Lodge that totaled about $50,000. |
| July 2014 | Flash Flood | Lutsen | $1,000 | Flood debris covered U. S. Highway 61. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | A medium to large spruce tree was down partially blocking Sawbill Trail. |
| May 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | Several medium trees of mixed types were down across The Grade near Rice Lake Road. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | One large tree was uprooted as well as a couple of cedar trees snapped in half. |
| May 2022 | Flood | Lutsen | - | Heavy rainfall led to the Poplar River becoming swollen and raging. Trees and other debris significantly damaged two covered bridges near the mouth of the river at the Lutsen Resort. The older of the two bridges was built in 1930 with the other dating from the 1950s. The resort owners have vowed to rebuild the bridges. Additionally, hundreds of trees were wiped out by the water as well. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | Many large pine trees were down with several broken halfway up. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | A large tree was downed near the end of the Gunflint Trail. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | A tree was knocked down near Baker Lake Campground on the Grade Road. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | There were many trees blown down. The largest diameter trees were 16 to 20. There were some trees uprooted and sheared off. |
| July 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | There was widespread tree damage near the end of the Gunflint Trail near Seagull Lake. Most damaged trees were blown down. |
| July 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Lutsen | - | There was a widespread tree blow down near the end of Gunflint Trail near Seagull Lake. |
| April 2011 | Hail | Lutsen | - | Penny size hail and gusty winds occurred near Seagull Lake. |
| October 2007 | Flood | Lutsen | - | Cook County law enforcement reported widespread road flooding from the evening of October 18 through early October 19. Portions of U.S. Highway 61 were flooded near Taconite Harbor. Several other county roads were also closed due to flooding, including county roads 1, 14, 42, 58, 60, 69, 70, and 71. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Lutsen | - | no account filed |
| June 2021 | Hail | Lutsen | - | no account filed |
| September 2017 | Hail | Lutsen | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Lutsen | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Lutsen | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Lutsen | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tofte | 9.9 miles | 11 | |
| Schroeder | 13.5 miles | 11 | |
| Taconite Harbor (historical) | 16.0 miles | 11 | |
| Grand Marais | 19.4 miles | 9 | |
| Chippewa City | 21.2 miles | 9 | |
| Maple Hill | 22.5 miles | 9 | |
| Croftville | 22.7 miles | 9 | |
| Covill | 29.1 miles | 10 |
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 Lutsen | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6705946 | 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 657265. 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.






