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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.

Nelson within Douglas County

Population over time

2 figures

Nelson 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.

YearPeople Change
2010187
2020182-5 (-3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 11 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

18 since 1996

Regional 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 burning12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Smoking2
Recreation and ceremony2

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
9 August 2007Smoking1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 August 1996Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 July 2007Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
3 May 1997Smoking25 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 May 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 April 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined30 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeI 94
6 April 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined12 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 April 1999Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Douglas County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Jensen Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Northland Pit and MillSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Douglas County

Storms near this place

3 since 2001

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2001Tornado (F0)Nelson-Minor tree and power pole damage.
June 2024HailNelson-no account filed
May 2022HailNelson-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Douglas 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
Hiview Park4.4 miles11
Carlos5.9 miles11
Alexandria6.0 miles9
Osakis6.1 miles9
Belle River7.3 miles9
Forada8.3 miles10
Miltona10.8 miles9
Garfield12.6 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 NelsonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2228448The 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.