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Ortonville, Minnesota

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Ortonville City. It lies in ZIP code area 56278. It stands on Whetstone River. The Survey maps it on the Ortonville quadrangle. 2,021 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,017 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Ortonville within Big Stone County

On record in Ortonville

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 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Ortonville grew from 1,916 to 2,021 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
20101,916
20202,021+105 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 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

12 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Ortonville between 1993 and 2020, burning about 632 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Debris and open burning4
Arson/incendiarism2
Natural1

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
30 September 1993Debris and open burning19 acresBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeDIMBERG-WF
2 September 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeBALER
29 July 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined9.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionI90-346
11 May 2004Natural354 acresBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeSELLIN
10 May 2013Debris and open burning117 acresMorris National Wildlife Refuge285G
28 April 2013Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMorris National Wildlife RefugeCR65
12 April 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionTIRE FIRE
1 April 2015Debris and open burning10 acresBig Stone National Wildlife RefugeGRAHAM

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Big Stone 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 Ortonville: 2 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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
Agate QuarryGranite, Stone, Crushed/BrokenProducer
Big Stone Sand and Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Big Stone County

Storms near this place

42 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ortonville in 42 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 18 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 5 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
August 2025Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-A trained spotter surveying for damage reported multiple trees topped, uprooted or damaged at a farmstead northeast of Ortonville. Minor structural damage to a small grain bin and outbuilding included shingles torn from the roof.
April 2023FloodOrtonville-The Minnesota River at Big Stone Lake reached a level of 972.7 or 1.2 feet above flood. An unknown number of cabins and businesses along the lake experienced some degree of flooding or water damage.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Sixty-five mph winds damaged a shed along with downing some large branches.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Eighty mph winds ripped the patio off of a house which also caused roof damage.
June 2017Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Eighty mph winds uprooted many trees at the Ortonville golf course.
June 2013Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Many large trees were downed by eighty mph winds.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Winds over 100 mph caused quite a bit of tree damage in Ortonville. Some trees were downed along with many tree branches. Some businesses sustained some facade damage. There were a few structures that suffered roof damage ranging from loss of shingles to a section of the roof being blown off. A storage building on the east side of town near the intersections of Highway 75 and 12 was blown down with a grain bin destroyed half mile east. Another grain bin suffered damage when it was hit by debris from the first grain bin.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Sixty mph winds were estimated in Ortonville.
July 2002Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Several large tree limbs were downed in Ortonville.
June 1999Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Winds gusting to 80 mph destroyed a barn and four grain bins near Ortonville.
July 1999Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Winds to 80 mph blew the roof off of the carpet store in Ortonville. The high winds also downed many large tree branches.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-A garage was completely destroyed by damaging thunderstorm winds and doors on a nearby pole barn were blown off.
October 1997Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-A line of thunderstorms producing straight line winds gusting to around 75 mph blew down several trees onto a home, a shed, and a motel in Ortonville damaging the structures. An uninhabited trailer home was rolled up hill by the strong winds.
May 1994Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-Strong thunderstorm winds and large damaged cars and buildings in and around the Ortonville and Odessa areas.
July 1994HailOrtonville-Hail fell for several minutes and piled up about one-half foot deep on roads.
June 2025FloodOrtonville-no account filed
June 2025Flash FloodOrtonville-no account filed
April 2023FloodOrtonville-no account filed
May 2022Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
July 2020HailOrtonville-no account filed
March 2019FloodOrtonville-no account filed
April 2019FloodOrtonville-no account filed
August 2019HailOrtonville-no account filed
July 2016Funnel CloudOrtonville-no account filed
May 2014HailOrtonville-no account filed
May 2012HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2005HailOrtonville-no account filed
August 2004HailOrtonville-no account filed
July 2003Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
June 2003HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2003HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2002HailOrtonville-no account filed
June 2001HailOrtonville-no account filed
May 1998HailOrtonville-no account filed
July 1997HailOrtonville-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
May 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindOrtonville-no account filed
August 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed
September 1996HailOrtonville-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Big Stone 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
Cashtown0.5 miles7
Lagoona Beach4.8 miles7
Odessa6.9 miles7
Clinton10.7 miles7
Foster14.5 miles8
Big Stone Colony15.6 miles8
Correll16.0 miles6
Artichoke16.6 miles6

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 OrtonvilleAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2031037The 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 649005. 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.