Ruthton, Minnesota
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Aetna Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56170. The Survey maps it on the Ruthton quadrangle. 226 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,732 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresRuthton fell from 241 to 226 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 | 241 | |
| 2020 | 226 | -15 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 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 Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Watertown quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1967 USGS Ruthton quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Brookings quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
198 words on this townshipAn Illustrated History of the Counties of Rock and Pipestone, Minnesota, published 1911 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Aetna Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Aetna Township - 198 words.
Fires near this place
1 since 2014Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 1 fire within 5 miles of Ruthton in 2014, burning about 123 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 April 2014 | Debris and open burning | 123 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Storms near this place
23 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ruthton in 23 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 14 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 1 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 2011 | Tornado (EF1) | Ruthton | $50,000 | A tornado destroyed a shelter belt, damaged a Morton building, and damaged several garages, one of which was moved off its foundation. The tornado also caused widespread tree damage, including several trees snapped off at the base. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ruthton | $50,000 | Non tornadic thunderstorm winds blew down trees, power poles, and power lines, destroyed a highway shop, and blew the roof off a pallet business. |
| September 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ruthton | $5,000 | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including large branches blown down. |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ruthton | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Ruthton | - | Winds accompanying the hail were from 45 to 50 mph. Crop damage is an estimate from insured losses. Information provided by the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ruthton | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage. |
| June 2014 | Flood | Ruthton | - | Persistent moderate to heavy rain caused flooding of some fields and other lowlands, including several roads. This flooding lasted well into the daytime hours after the rain subsided. |
| September 2005 | Lightning | Ruthton | - | Lightning struck a large tree at an elementary school, damaging the tree and forcing its removal. |
| May 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ruthton | - | Strong thunderstorm winds blew down several trees. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| April 2021 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| May 2012 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Hail | Ruthton | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Ruthton | - | 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.
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 Ruthton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2228239 | 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 650431. 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.



