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Morton, Minnesota

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Morton City. It lies in ZIP code area 56270. The Survey maps it on the Morton quadrangle. 410 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 863 feet above sea level.

Morton within Renville County

On record in Morton

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

Population over time

2 figures

Morton fell from 411 to 410 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
2010411
2020410-1 (-0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 12 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

1 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Morton in 2014, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. 1 was 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/incendiarism1

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
6 July 2014Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Renville County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Morton: 4 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Kaolin, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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
Morton PitKaolinProducerGibbsite, Illite, Kaolinite, Montmorillonite, Quartz
Norton Clay PitClayProducer
Rainbow QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Serbus MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Renville County

Storms near this place

10 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Morton in 10 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 heavy rain, 2 hail, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2017Flash FloodMorton$325,000Very heavy rainfall, and associated flooding, led to temporarily closures of Anderson Lake County Park in Franklin, along with Beaver Falls and Birth Coulee County Parks in Morton. Mack Lake County Park in Fairfax, Skalbekken County Park in Sacred Heart and Vicksburg Park in Renville were also closed due to the flooding. Several county roads in southwest Renville County were closed, and some became impassable.
July 2019Flash FloodMorton$200,000There was an unconfirmed report of 7 inches of rainfall around the Morton area. There were also measured rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches around the area. Due to the extreme rainfall amounts, and the impact of the area, approximately 30 homes were flooded from local small streams and runoff. Three homes had 6-8 feet of water in their basements, and Minnesota Highway 19 was closed east of Morton due to a mudslide.
August 2025Thunderstorm WindMorton-Dispatch reported a large tree down blocking the road just northwest of Morton.
July 2018Heavy RainMorton-A measured rainfall report of 5.59 inches fell west of Morton in 24 hours.
March 2017HailMorton-A swath of large hail, up to quarter size, fell from the Renville, and Redwood County line, then northeast past the town of Morton.
August 2017Heavy RainMorton-A measured rainfall report indicated 6.82 inches fell near Morton, Minnesota.
August 2017Heavy RainMorton-A measured rainfall report indicated 6.49 inches fell near Beaver Falls in a 12 hour period.
June 2005HailMorton-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindMorton-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindMorton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Renville 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
Beaver Falls4.0 miles13
Franklin5.7 miles12
Bechyn8.4 miles11
Fairfax14.1 miles9
Countryview Estates14.3 miles9
Olivia15.5 miles10
Bird Island15.6 miles10
Danube17.6 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 MortonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1884289The 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 648125. 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.