Rice, Minnesota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1948 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Rice City. It lies in ZIP code area 56367. The Survey maps it on the Rice quadrangle. 1,975 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,063 feet above sea level.
On record in Rice
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
Esselman Brothers General Storelisted 1982
Population over time
2 figuresRice grew from 1,275 to 1,975 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 | 1,275 | |
| 2020 | 1,975 | +700 (+55%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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.
- 1948 USGS Pierz quadrangle1:62500
- 1950 USGS Pierz quadrangle1:62500
- 1953 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS Rice quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS St. Cloud quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
128 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 128 fires within 5 miles of Rice between 1992 and 2019, burning about 228 acres in total. None started naturally. 15 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 burning | 50 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 16 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 15 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 11 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 15 September 1998 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 August 2013 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.2 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 August 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 August 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 August 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 August 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
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 Rice: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Limestone, General. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benton County Marl Bed | Limestone, General | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
25 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rice in 25 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 16 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 injury. 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 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | 1 hurt, $50,000 | Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of trees were uprooted, snapped or broken in an eight mile wide swath that extended from the western edge of the county, near Rice to Watab, to just north of Sartell, to north central Benton County, in Graham Township, centered near State Highway 25 and County Road 77. In addition, a local Minnesota Department of Transportation Weather Station near Rice, measured a wind gust of 64 knots. A semi-truck was blown over near Rice along Highway 10, resulting in one injury. Plus, a spotter on the northeast shore of Little Rock Lake measured a wind gust of 81 mph before his tower collapsed and the anemometer ceased to function. The intense wind blew from the southwest. Hundreds of large and healthy trees were broken or snapped, blocking roads. The storm survey team concluded a downburst hit the area. |
| June 2015 | Lightning | Rice | $5,000 | Local officials determined that lightning started a fire, and also damaged a gas meter in Rice, Minnesota. The damage was limited mostly to the exterior of the house. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | - | Mesonet station MN064 T.h.10 - Rice - Mp 162 measured a thunderstorm wind gust of 60 mph. |
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | - | A Minnesota Department of Transportation wind sensor measured a wind gust of 65 mph. |
| March 2017 | Hail | Rice | - | A swath of large hail, up to quarter size, fell near Rice, and northeast of Rice to the Morrison County line. Almost all of the hail was dime size or smaller. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Rice | - | Local Law Enforcement officials and the Emergency Manager reported a nearly continuous path of large hail that fell across northern Benton County from near Rice, northeast to Brennyville. This path is the extension of the hail swath across northern Stearns County. Most of the hail was nickel to quarter size and had depths over 6 inches in some places. The largest hail stone was around tennis ball size. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | - | Wind gust occurred on US Highway 10 Mile post 162. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Rice | - | Some crop damage was reported. |
| June 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Rice | - | A trained spotter reported a funnel cloud. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | - | Scattered trees down. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | - | Large branches down. Estimated windspeed. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Rice | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | Rice | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Hail | Rice | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rockwood Estates | 2.1 miles | 13 | |
| Watab | 5.6 miles | 13 | |
| Mayhew | 6.4 miles | 11 | |
| Fruitville | 7.9 miles | 11 | |
| Evergreen Village | 9.3 miles | 12 | |
| Sauk Rapids | 11.4 miles | 12 | |
| Popple Creek | 12.1 miles | 11 | |
| Jakeville | 12.4 miles | 11 |
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 Rice | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2249511 | 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 649962. 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.






