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New York Mills, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Newton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56567. The Survey maps it on the New York Mills West quadrangle. 1,294 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,411 feet above sea level.

New York Mills within Otter Tail County

Population over time

2 figures

New York Mills grew from 1,199 to 1,294 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
20101,199
20201,294+95 (+8%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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.

In the county-history sources

21 words on this township

Otter Tail County, Minnesota, in the World War;, published 1919 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

The chapter on Newton Township covers the township.

Read the chapter on Newton Township - 21 words.

Fires near this place

16 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 16 fires within 5 miles of New York Mills between 1993 and 2019, burning about 205 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 2 were 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 burning6
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Equipment and vehicle use2
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural1
Railroad operations and maintenance1
Recreation and ceremony1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
7 May 2018Power generation/transmission/distribution33 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
7 May 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
4 May 2019Recreation and ceremony12 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
17 May 1994Natural3.4 acresFergus Falls Wetland Management DistrictHEINOLA
13 May 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreTamarac National Wildlife RefugeCR 26
28 April 1995Debris and open burning12 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
26 April 1998Arson/incendiarism42 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
25 April 1993Debris and open burning3.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Otter Tail County

Storms near this place

49 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names New York Mills in 49 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 24 hail, 18 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 1 funnel cloud. 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
September 1998Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills$4,000,000The strong winds hit New York Mills quite hard. 1,600 customers in the area lost power, with 50 power poles snapped in half. The city garage lost parts of its roof, as did the school gym and the school storage shed. A garage in the town was ripped in two, sending a portion of the roof into two vehicles parked two lots away. Numerous trees and signs were blown down.
July 2014FloodNew York Mills$25,000Water covered county road 67 near county roads 142 and 54.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills$10,000A large tree split in two, one half falling on a car and the other half falling on a house.
September 2014Tornado (EF1)New York Mills$3,000A tornado wrapped in downburst winds and heavy rain tracked intermittently for about two miles across east central Newton Township. The tornado knocked down numerous trees and large tree branches, broke a few power poles, and overturned a hayrack along its route. Peak winds were estimated at 95 mph.
July 2010Flash FloodNew York Mills$1,000A flooded basement was reported.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills$1,000Trees were blown down.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Several big trees blown down. Several cattle sheds blown down. A semi-trailer was blown over on highway 10 in similar area.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Relayed via broadcast media from public. Time estimated from radar. Wind damage near New York Mills.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Peak wind measured at a personal weather station.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Large tree branches were snapped and power outages were reported. Time based on radar.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Multiple wind gusts during this time frame were measured by a personal weather station.
July 2020HailNew York Mills-Dime to quarter sized hail fell along with very heavy rain.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Tree damage was reported throughout town.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Several trees were snapped.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Numerous large tree branches were blown down.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Large trees were blown down.
May 2011HailNew York Mills-Pea to penny sized hail was reported.
July 2010HailNew York Mills-Also large tree branches of 4-6 inch diameter were broken off.
July 2009Heavy RainNew York Mills-Approximately 3.47 inches of rain fell in three separate events between noon and 4 pm CST.
June 2006Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Many large trees were uprooted or snapped off by the strong wind.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-2 inch diameter tree branches were blown down.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-A barn was pushed off its foundation and a horse was injured.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Numerous large trees were blown down or uprooted. Trees fell on cars and homes.
September 2004Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-Steel roofing was torn off a pole barn.
July 2003Flash FloodNew York Mills-Flooding ditches caused some basement flooding.
July 2000HailNew York Mills-When the hail hit the Rush Lake area, lake residents reported that the lake looked like it was boiling.
July 2000HailNew York Mills-The hailstones damaged the steel siding on a home and barn, smashed up 2 cars, and damaged a roof.
July 2000Flash FloodNew York Mills-Nearly four inches of rain fell across the New York Mills area, causing several streets to be barricaded.
September 1998HailNew York Mills-Some hail was still on the ground the next morning.
October 1996HailNew York Mills-An unusual outbreak of severe weather, the latest on record, occurred across north central Minnesota. Intense low pressure tracking into Minnesota produced blizzard conditions over portions of South Dakota, while further east in Minnesota, unseasonably mild temperatures developed. Temperatures climbed near 70 with dew points in the 50s.
June 2022HailNew York Mills-no account filed
August 2015HailNew York Mills-no account filed
September 2014HailNew York Mills-no account filed
September 2014HailNew York Mills-no account filed
August 2013HailNew York Mills-no account filed
August 2013HailNew York Mills-no account filed
July 2012HailNew York Mills-no account filed
July 2012HailNew York Mills-no account filed
July 2008HailNew York Mills-no account filed
August 2006HailNew York Mills-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindNew York Mills-no account filed
June 2005HailNew York Mills-no account filed
May 2003Funnel CloudNew York Mills-no account filed
July 2003HailNew York Mills-no account filed
July 2001HailNew York Mills-no account filed
August 2001HailNew York Mills-no account filed
July 2000HailNew York Mills-no account filed
September 1998HailNew York Mills-no account filed
June 1998HailNew York Mills-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Otter Tail 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
Heinola4.6 miles9
Topelius (historical)5.5 miles9
Richdale5.8 miles9
Davies6.7 miles9
Bluffton8.3 miles9
West Wind Estates8.3 miles9
Leaf City (historical)9.0 miles9
Deer Creek9.2 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 New York MillsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2228091The 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 648524. 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.