Solway, Minnesota
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1919 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Lammers Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56678. The Survey maps it on the Solway quadrangle. 73 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,450 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSolway fell from 96 to 73 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 | 96 | |
| 2020 | 73 | -23 (-24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 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.
- 1919 USGS Solway quadrangle1:62500
- 1943 USGS Solway quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Solway quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Fosston quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
83 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 83 fires within 5 miles of Solway between 1992 and 2020, burning about 269 acres in total. None started naturally. 11 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 | 46 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 11 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 9 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2003 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 6 August 2005 | Debris and open burning | 28 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 August 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 5 August 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 August 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 12 August 2015 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 July 2007 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.5 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 July 2005 | Debris and open burning | 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
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Solway: 2 occurrences. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearwater County Marl Beds No 1 | Limestone, General | Occurrence | ||
| Clearwater County Marl Beds No 2 | Limestone, General | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
13 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Solway in 13 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | $15,000,000 | A ground survey and high resolution satellite confirmed a swath of destructive straight-line winds estimated between 80-120 mph occurred across southern Beltrami County. The swath started in Clearwater County and continued east across southern Beltrami County and northern Hubbard County, and was approximately 30 miles long. The widest part of the swath was approximately 12 miles wide from just north of Bemidji to its southernmost point in northern Hubbard County. There was approximately 143,838 acres of southern Beltrami County impacted with widespread tree damage within this single swath. Highest impacted areas extend from near the US Highway 2 and Division Street West intersection, through downtown Bemidji, and through southern and eastern areas of Lake Bemidji. Extensive and significant tree damage was noted within this swath. While widespread tree damage occurred across this 30 mile long swath, the most significant tree damage was within a mile swath beginning south of Wilton and extending about 4 miles east of Lake Bemidji. Such widespread and significant tree damage made numerous roads inaccessible, hampering recovery efforts and trapping people at locations like Lake Bemidji State Park. Some trees that were downed are reported to be 100 to 200 years old. As a result of extensive tree damage, widespread and long duration power outages occurred for over 50,000 reported accounts, some locations lasting more than 6 days after the event within Beltrami County near the Bemidji area. Fallen trees also resulted in vehicular and structural damage. Widespread structural damage from destructive winds alone also occurred to residential and commercial buildings, government buildings, the Sanford Center Arena, and Bemidji State University. This includes, but is not limited to, completely destroyed outbuildings and garages, roofs damaged or completely destroyed, and numerous instances of broken windows. Reports of damage to aircraft and airport buildings received at the Bemidji International Airport. Media relayed that 90 percent of Bemidji State University buildings suffered some form of damage. NWS storm survey teams did not find definitive evidence of tornadic circulation, rather they found damage indicative of destructive straight line winds. |
| June 2022 | Tornado (EF1) | Solway | $15,000 | Thunderstorm cell merger helped to initiate a tornado which then tracked to the north-northeast. The fast developing funnel cloud was viewed by local spotters prior to sheltering. Subsequent survey found numerous large poplar and pine trees were snapped and a few were uprooted, in a loose swirl or converging pattern, all along a nearly 4 mile long path. Power lines were taken down in spots due to snapped trees. |
| May 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | $10,000 | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | $500 | A large tree was blown down. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Solway | - | Emergency manager relays report from Public SW of Solway of quarter to half-dollar sized hail. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | - | Trees were snapped or broken down across northern Jones and southern Lammers Townships. Time estimated based on radar. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | - | Mature trees were blown down. |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | - | Large trees were blown down, blocking a road. |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | - | Several trees were blown down. |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | - | A few trees were snapped with branches scattered about. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Solway | - | Eight to ten inch diameter trees were blown down along county road 5. |
| May 2011 | Hail | Solway | - | The large hail fell in Solway. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Solway | - | 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 Solway | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2227628 | 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 652248. 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.






