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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.

Mountain Lake within Cottonwood County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Mountain 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.

YearPeople Change
20102,104
20201,999-105 (-5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 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 2003

Regional 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 burning1

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
25 March 2003Debris and open burning3.0 acresWindom Wetland Management DistrictMOUNTAIN LAKE

Every fire recorded in Cottonwood County

Storms near this place

40 since 1995

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2003Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake$1,000,000Thunderstorm 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 2003HailMountain Lake$200,000Large 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 1998Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake$150,000no account filed
April 2004Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake$5,000Thunderstorm winds destroyed a small shed at an athletic field, and caused tree damage.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake$2,000Thunderstorm winds damaged several large trees and destroyed an outbuilding.
October 1996HailMountain Lake$1,000no account filed
April 2025HailMountain Lake-An abundance of dime to nickel size hail fell.
June 2023Tornado (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 2022HailMountain 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 2022Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Grain bins were damaged with the debris tossed across the road into an open field.
July 2022Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Multiple trees were blown down, including one that is two feet in diameter across 3rd Avenue.
September 2021Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Several 3 to 4 inch tree branches were downed by thunderstorm winds.
October 2017HailMountain Lake-Report received via Social Media.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a large tree blown across a road.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several large trees blown down.
June 2016Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including several small branches blown down.
June 2015Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage.
August 2014Tornado (EF0)Mountain Lake-A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
June 2013HailMountain Lake-Large hail covered the ground, and drifts persisted for several hours after the storm.
June 2010Flash FloodMountain Lake-Heavy rain caused flash flooding of a rural road and adjoining low areas.
August 2006Tornado (F0)Mountain Lake-A brief tornado caused no reported damage.
August 2003Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including 3 inch diameter branches blown down. The wind also blew shingles off a house.
July 1995Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-Thunderstorm winds of unknown speed caused widespread tree damage and undetermined crop damage.
April 2026HailMountain Lake-no account filed
April 2026HailMountain Lake-no account filed
September 2025HailMountain Lake-no account filed
September 2019HailMountain Lake-no account filed
June 2017HailMountain Lake-no account filed
June 2017HailMountain Lake-no account filed
July 2016HailMountain Lake-no account filed
July 2016HailMountain Lake-no account filed
May 2011HailMountain Lake-no account filed
July 2011Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-no account filed
September 2010HailMountain Lake-no account filed
July 2005HailMountain Lake-no account filed
May 2004HailMountain Lake-no account filed
August 2002Thunderstorm WindMountain Lake-no account filed
July 2000HailMountain Lake-no account filed
June 1998HailMountain Lake-no account filed
June 1998HailMountain Lake-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cottonwood 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
Bingham Lake6.6 miles7
Delft9.1 miles7
Windom11.1 miles7
Jeffers16.3 miles10
Storden21.7 miles9
Westbrook27.8 miles10

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 LakeAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2228498The 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.