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Middle River, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Spruce Valley Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56737. The Survey maps it on the Middle River quadrangle. 304 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,142 feet above sea level.

Middle River within Marshall County

Population over time

2 figures

Middle River grew from 303 to 304 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
2010303
2020304+1 (+0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 9 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

34 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 34 fires within 5 miles of Middle River between 1996 and 2020, burning about 2,738 acres in total. None started naturally. 17 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/incendiarism17
Debris and open burning11
Equipment and vehicle use5
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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
29 September 2018Equipment and vehicle use25 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 September 2012Missing data/not specified/undetermined16 acresAgassiz National Wildlife RefugeCOMO SOUTH
19 September 2018Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
18 September 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
16 August 2018Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
24 July 2017Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 July 2015Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 June 2020Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Marshall County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Middle River: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Ornquist Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Marshall County

Storms near this place

24 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Middle River in 24 storm reports between 1999 and 2022: 14 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 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
May 2000Thunderstorm WindMiddle River$500,000Straight-line winds hit Middle River, causing roof and tree damage. Several grain bins and barns were destroyed and the front of a building blew off and landed on a pickup truck. A window was also blown out of a trailer.
June 2014Flash FloodMiddle River$20,000Flooding occurred along the Middle River in the town of Middle River, causing a few streets to be closed and several spots to be sandbagged. Farm fields and farm access roads were also flooded near the Middle River in eastern Spruce Valley and western Cedar townships.
June 2020Tornado (EF1)Middle River$6,000This tornado was viewed and recorded by at least two chase teams as it tracked intermittently for about 9 miles. The tornado snapped numerous trees in groves along its path, spreading debris up to 300 yards wide across one roadway. Peak winds were estimated at 100 mph.
August 2000Thunderstorm WindMiddle River$1,000Tree damage was reported north of Middle River.
June 2022HailMiddle River-Wind-driven hail punched holes in siding and broke out several windows on the west/northwest walls of a house. Hail stones up to golf-ball sized were found in melting piles early the next morning.
June 2022HailMiddle River-Quarter to ping-pong ball sized hail was reported as accumulating on the ground.
July 2015HailMiddle River-Winds also gusted up to 50 mph.
September 2014HailMiddle River-Some quarter sized hail was mixed in with a lot of smaller sized hail.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindMiddle River-Several 10 to 12 inch diameter poplar trees were blown down.
September 2011Thunderstorm WindMiddle River-Large tree branches were blown down.
August 2007HailMiddle River-About 1.75 inches of rain fell in 15 minutes.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindMiddle River-Three to five inch diameter tree branches were blown down.
July 2005Tornado (F0)Middle River-Intermittent touchdowns occurred along the damage path. Anticyclonic (clockwise) rotation was evident in the tree damage that occurred in shelterbelts.
July 2020Funnel CloudMiddle River-no account filed
June 2020Funnel CloudMiddle River-no account filed
June 2019HailMiddle River-no account filed
August 2015HailMiddle River-no account filed
September 2014HailMiddle River-no account filed
August 2007HailMiddle River-no account filed
May 2005HailMiddle River-no account filed
July 2001HailMiddle River-no account filed
August 2001HailMiddle River-no account filed
May 2000HailMiddle River-no account filed
July 1999HailMiddle River-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Marshall 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
Holt9.9 miles9
Newfolden10.3 miles10
Strandquist15.5 miles10
Ellerth17.5 miles10
Rosewood18.2 miles10
Viking19.6 miles10
Gatzke20.2 miles9
Foldahl21.6 miles9

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 Middle RiverAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2114999The 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 647816. 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.