Mahtowa, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Mahtowa Township. It lies in ZIP code area 55707. It stands on Park Lake Creek. The Survey maps it on the Barnum quadrangle. 332 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,152 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMahtowa fell from 370 to 332 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 | 370 | |
| 2020 | 332 | -38 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1953 USGS Duluth quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Barnum quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Duluth quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Duluth quadrangle1:100000
- 1981 USGS Barnum quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
122 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 122 fires within 5 miles of Mahtowa between 1992 and 2020, burning about 238 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 19 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 | 55 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 19 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 17 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 16 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 September 2016 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 August 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 August 2004 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 August 2007 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2007 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 August 2013 | Fireworks | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 August 1992 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 17 August 2013 | Smoking | 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
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Mahtowa: 2 producers, 2 occurrences. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Erickson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Ulland Bros Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Uranium Prospect No 1 | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Uranium Prospect No 2 | Uranium | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
11 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mahtowa in 11 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 8 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2024 | Hail | Mahtowa | $30,000 | Cars were damaged on Interstate 35 near the Mahtowa exit. |
| March 2025 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | Dimes to quarter sized hail with over an inch of accumulation on the ground. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mahtowa | - | Numerous trees were blown down across Highway 61 south of Mahtowa. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mahtowa | - | Numerous maple trees were blown down and the top third of an 8 inch pine was snapped off. |
| March 2025 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Mahtowa | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mahtowa | - | 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 Mahtowa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3471932 | 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 647392. 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.




