Renville, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Emmet Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56284. The Survey maps it on the Renville quadrangle. 1,301 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,073 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRenville grew from 1,287 to 1,301 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 | 1,287 | |
| 2020 | 1,301 | +14 (+1%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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 New Ulm quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Renville quadrangle1:24000
- 1967 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1986 USGS Montevideo quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
7,514 words on this townshipThe History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916 names this settlement in its chapter on Emmet Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
Emmet township embraces township 115, range 36. It is bounded on the north by Crooks, en the east by Troy, on the south by 'Mora and on the west by Sacred Heart. It is crossed by the C. M. & St. Paul Ry. It lias one city, Renville, located in the north western part.
Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.
In June. 1S69, William Powers and his family, and James Daly, started overland for Renville county. With their wagon as their headquarters they camped on the northeast Quarter of section 32, in Emmet township. . while Powers and Daly drew
Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.
The next group of settlers to arrive were the members of the David Benson party. David Benson and James Jacobson were college mates in Norway. Among their friends were Espen Hanson and Ole Quanisoe. In the spring of 1870 they set out from Dodge county, Minnesota, for Renville county. Benson and Hanson brought their families, the other two were single men. All took land in section 6 and moved into a cabin which had been erected for the Hanson family.
Passage source: The History of Renville County, Minnesota, published 1916.
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 Emmet Township - it names this place 6 more 6 times.
Fires near this place
1 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Renville in 2006, burning about 17 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 October 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 17 acres | Litchfield Wetland Management District | SACRED HEART FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Renville: 1 producer. All of them still produce. 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hagen Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
32 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Renville in 32 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 15 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 2 funnel cloud, 2 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | $75,000 | Numerous trees and power lines were blown down between Renville and Olivia. Some trees fell on cars, houses, and sheds. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | $25,000 | Several homes had roof damage and a few large trees were uprooted north of Renville. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Storm chaser reported numerous trees down in Renville. |
| September 2024 | Hail | Renville | - | Report from Mping. |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Renville | - | At 1831 CST storm chaser video confirmed a weak tornado developed near 260th St in Renville County. This storm continued into Kandiyohi county towards the city of Prinsburg, MN. No injuries or damages were reported. |
| May 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Renville | - | At 1818 CST storm chaser video confirmed a weak tornado developed southeast of 20699 860th Street. No injuries or damages were reported. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | A large tree was blown down near Renville, Minnesota. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Several large tree limbs were blown down in Renville. In addition, there was a measured wind gust of 48 mph at the Olivia Airport approximately 10 miles east of Renville at 753 LST. |
| April 2012 | Funnel Cloud | Renville | - | A funnel cloud was reported north of Renville. |
| August 2010 | Flash Flood | Renville | - | Several inches of rainfall occurred between 10 PM CST to 12 Midnight CST across a large area of Renville County. A section of Highway 212 near Renville, Minnesota, was closed due to the flood waters. Some areas along Highway 212 had 10 inches of flowing water over it during the height of the storm. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Large branches were downed. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Several trees down in the south side of town. |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Estimated winds. Numerous power lines down. |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Estimated winds. Barn toppled. |
| May 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Estimated winds. Two barns down. Numerous trees toppled. Damage survey indicated a thunderstorm downburst occurred. The downburst swath was about 3 miles wide and 3 miles long. The downburst extended into Kandiyohi county. |
| October 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | Barn blown down. Estimated windspeed. |
| May 2022 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| September 2020 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| April 2019 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| April 2012 | Funnel Cloud | Renville | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Renville | - | no account filed |
| November 2008 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| April 2006 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Renville | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Hail | Renville | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Danube | 6.1 miles | 9 | |
| Sacred Heart | 7.4 miles | 9 | |
| Olivia | 11.8 miles | 10 | |
| Bechyn | 12.0 miles | 11 | |
| Beaver Falls | 16.7 miles | 13 | |
| Bird Island | 16.8 miles | 10 | |
| Morton | 20.4 miles | 12 | |
| Franklin | 25.1 miles | 12 |
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 Renville | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2229289 | 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 649934. 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.





