Mountain Lake, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Mountain Lake City. It lies in ZIP code area 56159. The Survey maps it on the Mountain Lake quadrangle. 1,999 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,302 feet above sea level.
On record in Mountain Lake
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
Isaac Bargen Houselisted 1986
Population over time
2 figuresMountain Lake fell from 2,104 to 1,999 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 | 2,104 | |
| 2020 | 1,999 | -105 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 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.
- 1954 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Mountain Lake quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Fairmont quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
1 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Mountain Lake in 2003, burning about 3 acres in total. None started naturally. None 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 March 2003 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Windom Wetland Management District | MOUNTAIN LAKE |
Storms near this place
40 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mountain Lake in 40 storm reports between 1995 and 2026: 21 hail, 15 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | $1,000,000 | Thunderstorm winds caused widespread tree damage, including numerous trees blown down. Falling trees damaged roofs of houses and destroyed the topper of a pickup truck, and severely damaged another pickup. Power lines were blown down, resulting in power outages. A large storage shed was destroyed. The roof of a house was blown off, and other roof damage to structures was reported. |
| June 2003 | Hail | Mountain Lake | $200,000 | Large hail severely damaged crops, especially corn. Many fields were deemed a total loss. The wind blown hail also damaged vehicles, cracked windows, and damaged the siding of homes. At least one greenhouse was heavily damaged. The hail was blown into drifts several inches high in many places. |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | $150,000 | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds destroyed a small shed at an athletic field, and caused tree damage. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | $2,000 | Thunderstorm winds damaged several large trees and destroyed an outbuilding. |
| October 1996 | Hail | Mountain Lake | $1,000 | no account filed |
| April 2025 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | An abundance of dime to nickel size hail fell. |
| June 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Mountain Lake | - | A brief landspout touched down in an open field just east of 560th Avenue and north of Minnesota State Highway 30. This tornado resulted in no visible damage and had no basis for rating. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | Penny size hail accompanied strong thunderstorm wind gusts. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Grain bins were damaged with the debris tossed across the road into an open field. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Multiple trees were blown down, including one that is two feet in diameter across 3rd Avenue. |
| September 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Several 3 to 4 inch tree branches were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| October 2017 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | Report received via Social Media. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a large tree blown across a road. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several large trees blown down. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several small branches blown down. |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage. |
| August 2014 | Tornado (EF0) | Mountain Lake | - | A brief tornado caused no reported damage. |
| June 2013 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | Large hail covered the ground, and drifts persisted for several hours after the storm. |
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Mountain Lake | - | Heavy rain caused flash flooding of a rural road and adjoining low areas. |
| August 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Mountain Lake | - | A brief tornado caused no reported damage. |
| August 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including 3 inch diameter branches blown down. The wind also blew shingles off a house. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | Thunderstorm winds of unknown speed caused widespread tree damage and undetermined crop damage. |
| April 2026 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| April 2026 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| September 2025 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| September 2019 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Mountain Lake | - | 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 Mountain Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2228498 | 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 648194. 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.



