Nelson, Minnesota
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Nelson City. It lies in ZIP code area 56355. The Survey maps it on the Alexandria East quadrangle. 182 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,362 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresNelson fell from 187 to 182 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 | 187 | |
| 2020 | 182 | -5 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 11 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.
- 1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Alexandria East quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1986 USGS Lake Minnewaska quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
18 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Nelson between 1996 and 2011, burning about 227 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 | 12 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 August 2007 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 23 August 1996 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 July 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 3 May 1997 | Smoking | 25 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 May 2007 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | Morris National Wildlife Refuge | I 94 |
| 6 April 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 April 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Nelson: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jensen Pit and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Northland Pit and Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Nelson in 3 storm reports between 2001 and 2024: 2 hail, 1 tornado. 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.
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiview Park | 4.4 miles | 11 | |
| Carlos | 5.9 miles | 11 | |
| Alexandria | 6.0 miles | 9 | |
| Osakis | 6.1 miles | 9 | |
| Belle River | 7.3 miles | 9 | |
| Forada | 8.3 miles | 10 | |
| Miltona | 10.8 miles | 9 | |
| Garfield | 12.6 miles | 9 |
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 Nelson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2228448 | 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 648449. 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.




