Oklee, Minnesota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Oklee City. It lies in ZIP code area 56742. The Survey maps it on the Oklee quadrangle. 413 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,152 feet above sea level.
On record in Oklee
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
Clearwater Evangelical Lutheran Churchlisted 1999
Population over time
2 figuresOklee fell from 435 to 413 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 | 435 | |
| 2020 | 413 | -22 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1919 USGS Grit quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1971 USGS Oklee quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fosston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
3 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Oklee between 1995 and 2011, burning about 6 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 May 1995 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2.0 acres | Red Lake Agency | R257 |
| 5 May 2011 | Arson/incendiarism | 4.0 acres | Red Lake Agency | RED LAKE 192 |
| 26 May 1996 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Red Lake Agency | R191 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
33 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Oklee in 33 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 19 hail, 9 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | $500,000 | The roof was torn off a new apartment building and blown into a field. Many trees were blown down, some into homes and powerlines. The roof was torn off of one mobile home while another was flipped over. 13 grain bins were damaged, 6 completely destroyed. The county highway department building was reduced to rubble and one truck inside was damaged. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | $150,000 | 8 grain bins were damaged and a semi trailer was overturned. |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | $5,000 | The strong wind blew a trailer off its foundation and its entryway was blown off. Several trees were blown over and a pole shed was damaged. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | $500 | Branches were blown down. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Oklee | - | Report of quarter size hail in Oklee. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | - | Semi truck trailer combination blown over near Oklee. Numerous large trees snapped or uprooted across lambert township. Several farmstead steel grain bins caved in, at least one collapsed. Thunderstorm wind gusts estimated from 80 to 90 mph in a 2 to 3 mile wide path. Winds in excess of 60 mph were reported over a several mile wide area. Time estimated based on radar. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | - | Numerous poplar, ash, box elder, and spruce trees were snapped or uprooted across farmsteads in Garnes and Equality townships between 440 and 448 pm cdt. A pole shed was blown open and metal sheathing and roofing spread downwind for over half a mile. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Oklee | - | Received a video of very heavy rain accompanied by 1-inch hail via social media. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Oklee | - | Photo and report of 1 inch hail was received via social media. Time estimated based on radar. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Oklee | - | Hail ranging from the size of ping pong balls to golf balls was reported, with photos sent via social media. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | - | Received a report of large tree branches and limbs broken. Power outages reported. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Oklee | - | Dime to quarter sized hail fell. |
| May 2016 | Tornado (EF0) | Oklee | - | Two funnel clouds were noted between Brooks and Oklee between 110 and 115 PM CST, with at least one brief touchdown reported in an open field. |
| August 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | - | Numerous large tree branches and limbs were broken down across portions of Roland Township, resulting in widespread power outages. |
| September 2011 | Hail | Oklee | - | Numerous nickel to quarter sized hail fell during very heavy rains and strong winds. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Oklee | - | The hail fell near the Polk and Red Lake County line. |
| June 2007 | Flood | Oklee | - | Basement flooding was reported in the Oklee area from the steady rain. The Lost River at Oklee jumped from around 4.9 feet on the morning of the 13th to 13.7 feet in the evening of the 15th, a total of about 9 feet. |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Oklee | - | Several intermittent touchdowns were reported. |
| May 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Oklee | - | Intermittent touchdowns were reported. |
| August 2020 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| May 2007 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Flash Flood | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| August 1997 | Hail | Oklee | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Oklee | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Garnes | 4.8 miles | 10 | |
| Brooks | 8.0 miles | 10 | |
| Roland | 8.3 miles | 10 | |
| Plummer | 11.1 miles | 10 | |
| Terrebonne | 14.8 miles | 10 | |
| Red Lake Falls | 22.4 miles | 10 | |
| Perault | 23.2 miles | 10 | |
| Delorme | 23.6 miles | 10 |
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 Oklee | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2229301 | 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 648913. 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.





