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Silver Bay, Minnesota

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1982. It stands in Silver Bay City. It lies in ZIP code area 55614. It lies near Beaver Island. The Survey maps it on the Silver Bay quadrangle. 1,857 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 764 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Silver Bay within Lake County

On record in Silver Bay

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

Population over time

2 figures

Silver Bay fell from 1,887 to 1,857 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
20101,887
20201,857-30 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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

29 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Silver Bay between 1992 and 2018, burning about 37 acres in total. 5 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
Debris and open burning10
Natural5
Recreation and ceremony4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Arson/incendiarism2

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
6 September 2006Naturalunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
27 September 2011Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2012Naturalunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
13 August 2007Debris and open burning1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
12 August 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
25 July 2007Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 July 2002Naturalunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
1 July 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake County

Mines and quarries near this place

5 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Silver Bay: 3 producers, 2 plants. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Iron, 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
Thompson PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
E.W. Davis WorksIronProducer
Northshore I Pellet PlantIronPlant
Northshore Mining Ii Pellet PlantIronPlant
Silver Bay PlantIronProducer

Every working recorded in Lake County

Storms near this place

19 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Silver Bay in 19 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 8 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2025Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-Photos were received of trees down in Silver Bay.
June 2011Heavy RainSilver Bay-Rainfall was received in the past hour and a half.
May 2011Funnel CloudSilver Bay-Low hanging, rotating clouds and/or brief funnels were observed over Lax Lake on the west side of Tettegouche State Park.
May 2011Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-Some tree limbs were broken off near Lax Lake.
June 2008Flash FloodSilver Bay-Heavy rainfall of 3 to 5 inches resulted in roadway flooding across portions of eastern Lake County, including highway 61, mainly north of Silver Bay.
October 2007FloodSilver Bay-Minnesota State Patrol reported widespread flooding in southern Lake County, between Silver Bay and Two Harbors, and near the Silver Cliff Tunnel and Split Rock Lighthouse from the afternoon of October 18 through the early morning hours of October 19. ||Water also inundated portions of Highway 61, Highway 1, and several county roads, including County Road 3 near Silver Bay and Cramer Road near Finland. The Baptism River near Tettegouche State Park was also near bankfull. Some flooding and many washed out driveways were reported in Silver Bay.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-Trees were blown down.
April 2021HailSilver Bay-no account filed
April 2013HailSilver Bay-no account filed
June 2012HailSilver Bay-no account filed
June 2012HailSilver Bay-no account filed
May 2011HailSilver Bay-no account filed
June 2003HailSilver Bay-no account filed
May 2001HailSilver Bay-no account filed
August 2001HailSilver Bay-no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-no account filed
July 1999Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-no account filed
July 1998Thunderstorm WindSilver Bay-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake 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
East Beaver Bay2.3 miles11
Beaver Bay3.4 miles11
Lax Lake4.4 miles11
Illgen City5.1 miles11
Kennedy Landing8.1 miles11
Finland8.3 miles11
Bell Harbor9.1 miles11
Little Marais Postoffice9.5 miles11

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 Silver BayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2194774The 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 658258. 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.