Paynesville, Minnesota
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Paynesville City. It lies in ZIP code area 56362. It lies near Bonanza Valley. The Survey maps it on the Paynesville quadrangle. 2,388 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,171 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresPaynesville fell from 2,432 to 2,388 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 | 2,432 | |
| 2020 | 2,388 | -44 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 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
- 1967 USGS Paynesville quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Litchfield quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
6,410 words on this townshipHistory of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915 names this settlement in its chapter on Paynesville City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The story of Paynesville, looking backward for a space of fifty-seven years, as gathered from the persons engaged in making the incidents happening therein and from the scanty records which were preserved of the earlier days, is in many respects very unsatisfactory, but withal very absorbing. At times the want of a public record, as is the case in the town of Verdale for one or two years years during the Indian and Civil Wars is very suggestive and eloquently tells the story of all men "to the front."
Passage source: History of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915.
The story of Paynesville from 1857 to the present day is a very real one to the few now left of the pioneers of fifty-seven years ago. Those gray-haired men and women in telling now of the incidents of the earlier life speak enthusiastically of the good old times, lightly of the hardships, eloquently of the friendships of those days and reverently and kindly of the many old settlers who have gone before.
Passage source: History of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915.
Paynesville, or more properly speaking, the country which has since become Paynesville, must have presented a very attractive appearance to the prospective settler and townsite locator fifty-seven years ago, as the early records show three attempts to locate townsites at and near what is now the location of this village.
Passage source: History of Stearns County, Minnesota, published 1915.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Paynesville City - it names this place 35 more 35 times.
Fires near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Paynesville between 1999 and 2007, burning about 85 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 May 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 25 October 1999 | Debris and open burning | 70 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 January 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 January 2000 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
38 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Paynesville in 38 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 21 hail, 13 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud, 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 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | A small area of intense downburst winds occurred on the south side of Paynesville. The local airport (KPEX), recorded a measured wind gust of 56 mph at 5:35 PM CST. Several trees were uprooted, and the debris was spread across a school parking lot. |
| June 2016 | Hail | Paynesville | - | Quarter size hail continued for 10 minutes. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | A large tree was blown down in Paynesville. |
| June 2012 | Heavy Rain | Paynesville | - | An observer measured 2.20 inches of rainfall in the last 24 hours. |
| August 2009 | Flash Flood | Paynesville | - | The local law enforcement officials in Stearns County reported that flooding occurred along Highway 23 around Paynesville. The officials indicated that over two feet of standing water flooded portions of Highway 23 on the north side of town. |
| April 2005 | Hail | Paynesville | - | Hail covered County Road 55. |
| September 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | Power lines were downed in town. Trees were downed at Lake Koronis Regional Park. |
| September 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Paynesville | - | A trained spotter reported a funnel cloud one mile north of Paynesville. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | A pontoon boat was blown off its lift. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | A 10 inch diameter tree was snapped in half. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | Numerous trees down, roof off a barn; machine shed blown about 100 feet. |
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | Several large trees down. |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | Barn destroyed. Winds estimated. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | Large tree limb down. Estimated windspeed. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | Trees blown down. Roof ripped off garage and flipped onto nearby house. Estimated windspeed. |
| July 1995 | Hail | Paynesville | - | One and one-quarter-inch hail swath occurred from three miles west of Paynesville to one mile west of Paynesville. Five and one-half inches of rain reported with the storm. |
| August 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| September 2022 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Paynesville | - | no account filed |
| August 1994 | Hail | Paynesville | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roscoe | 5.3 miles | 8 | |
| Lake Henry | 7.1 miles | 8 | |
| Saint Martin | 8.7 miles | 8 | |
| Farming | 11.1 miles | 9 | |
| Richmond | 11.5 miles | 9 | |
| Spring Hill | 11.7 miles | 8 | |
| Georgeville | 11.9 miles | 8 | |
| Saint Nicholas | 14.6 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 Paynesville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1012284 | 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 649194. 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.




