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Minneota, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Minneota City. It lies in ZIP code area 56264. The Survey maps it on the Minneota quadrangle. 1,366 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,168 feet above sea level.

Minneota within Lyon County

On record in Minneota

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 3 records

Population over time

2 figures

Minneota fell from 1,392 to 1,366 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
20101,392
20201,366-26 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 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.

In the county-history sources

6,003 words on this township

An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota, published 1912 names this settlement in its chapter on Minneota City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Minneota is in the northwestern part of the county, on the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. The platted village is on the southeast quarter of section 25. Kidsvold township. Its elevation above sea level is 1179 feet. The population when the 1910 census was taken was 819.

Passage source: An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota, published 1912.

So early as 1871 located in the northwest corner township in close proximity to the site of the present village. Others came the following year, and in 1872 a postoffice named Nordland was established for their benefit. It was located on section 26, just west of the site of the village, and H. D. Frink, a homesteader, was the postmaster. That office was the predecessor of the Minneota office and Mr. Frink remained in charge until it was moved to the present location in 1875. Mr. Frink

Passage source: An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota, published 1912.

The change in the name of the postoffice from Nordland to Minneota (an Indian word signifying "big water") occurred in February, 1878. The change was not brought about without much bickering, jealousy and hard feelings. Owing to the manner of selecting the name great excitement prevailed and enmities were made that took years to overcome. The name Minneota was suggested by T. I). Seals."

Passage source: An Illustrated History of Lyon County, Minnesota, published 1912.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Minneota City - it names this place 39 more 39 times.

Storms near this place

44 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Minneota in 44 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 23 hail, 14 thunderstorm wind, 4 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 2022Thunderstorm WindMinneota2 hurtHigh winds downed numerous trees and damaged several buildings in Minneota. The roof was torn off the Auto Center. One direct injury resulted to a driver when his semi-truck was blown into the ditch and rolled 3 miles east of Minneota. A second direct injury occurred when a person was blown down by the wind.
June 1997HailMinneota$100,000Large hail devastated about 40 thousand acres of crops in western Lyon County. The area just south of Minneota was the most affected.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindMinneota$50,000Thunderstorm winds caused tree and minor building damage damage and blew down signs.
March 2014Tornado (EF0)Minneota$15,000A tornado destroyed outbuildings, damaged a grain bin, and broke windows in a house in northern Lyon County, then crossed the county line into Yellow Medicine County.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindMinneota$1,000A large tree was toppled on a farmstead. Property damage costs are rough estimates. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture.
June 2025Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Strong thunderstorm wind gusts broke off several 2 inch diameter tree limbs.
April 2023FloodMinneota-Areal flooding from rapid snowmelt resulted in damage to several gravel roads and culverts across Lyon County, Minnesota during mid April. The most concentrated area of issues occurred in Westerheim Township in northern Lyon County. This flooding resulted in a Presidential Disaster Declaration for several townships across the county.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindMinneota-A thunderstorm wind gust of 65 mph was measured by a hand-held anemometer.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Medium to large diameter branches were downed by thunderstorm winds in Minneota.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Wind estimate through social media report.
August 2017Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Peal size hail and very heavy rain occurred at the same time.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Several large tree branches were downed.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree damage, with numerous trees in Minneota blown down.
June 2013HailMinneota-Large hail caused an unknown amount of damage to vehicles.
April 2012Tornado (EF0)Minneota-A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
August 2012HailMinneota-Large hail caused an unknown amount of crop, vehicle, window, and roof damage.
June 2004Tornado (F0)Minneota-A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
June 2004Tornado (F0)Minneota-A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
June 2002Flash FloodMinneota-Heavy rain caused flooding of several township roads.
June 2001Thunderstorm WindMinneota-Thunderstorm winds blew down power lines and moved cars.
July 2000HailMinneota-Large hail caused widespread crop damage, with soybean crops especially hard hit. Crop damage estimates were available but incomplete.
July 2023HailMinneota-no account filed
May 2023HailMinneota-no account filed
May 2022HailMinneota-no account filed
September 2020HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2016HailMinneota-no account filed
July 2016HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2014Funnel CloudMinneota-no account filed
April 2012HailMinneota-no account filed
August 2009HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2006HailMinneota-no account filed
July 2006HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindMinneota-no account filed
May 2005HailMinneota-no account filed
May 2004HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2002HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2002HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2001HailMinneota-no account filed
June 2001HailMinneota-no account filed
July 2000Thunderstorm WindMinneota-no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindMinneota-no account filed
June 1999HailMinneota-no account filed
September 1995HailMinneota-no account filed
July 1994HailMinneota-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lyon 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
Taunton4.9 miles8
Ghent5.9 miles9
Green Valley12.3 miles9
Lynd12.9 miles9
Marshall13.0 miles11
Garvin Park13.0 miles11
Village Park14.0 miles11
Russell16.6 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 MinneotaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1005708The 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 647933. 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.

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.