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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.

Solway within Beltrami County

Population over time

2 figures

Solway 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.

YearPeople Change
201096
202073-23 (-24%)

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

83 since 1992

Regional 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 burning46
Arson/incendiarism11
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Equipment and vehicle use8
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Recreation and ceremony3
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

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
5 September 2003Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
6 August 2005Debris and open burning28 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 August 2007Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
5 August 2007Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 August 1998Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
12 August 2015Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 July 2007Arson/incendiarism1.5 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
30 July 2005Debris and open burningunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Beltrami County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Clearwater County Marl Beds No 1Limestone, GeneralOccurrence
Clearwater County Marl Beds No 2Limestone, GeneralOccurrence

Every working recorded in Beltrami County

Storms near this place

13 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2025Thunderstorm WindSolway$15,000,000A 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 2022Tornado (EF1)Solway$15,000Thunderstorm 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 1996Thunderstorm WindSolway$10,000no account filed
August 2001Thunderstorm WindSolway$500A large tree was blown down.
July 2023HailSolway-Emergency manager relays report from Public SW of Solway of quarter to half-dollar sized hail.
June 2022Thunderstorm WindSolway-Trees were snapped or broken down across northern Jones and southern Lammers Townships. Time estimated based on radar.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindSolway-Mature trees were blown down.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindSolway-Large trees were blown down, blocking a road.
July 2019Thunderstorm WindSolway-Several trees were blown down.
July 2017Thunderstorm WindSolway-A few trees were snapped with branches scattered about.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindSolway-Eight to ten inch diameter trees were blown down along county road 5.
May 2011HailSolway-The large hail fell in Solway.
July 2003HailSolway-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Beltrami 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
Pinewood5.3 miles11
Scribner6.3 miles11
Wilton6.9 miles11
Aure10.6 miles11
Werner12.8 miles10
Secluded Acres12.9 miles10
Bemidji13.6 miles9
Birchmont14.4 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 SolwayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2227628The 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.