BlockBefore

Staples, Minnesota

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Staples City. It lies in ZIP code area 56479. The Survey maps it on the Staples quadrangle. 2,989 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,280 feet above sea level.

Staples within Todd County

On record in Staples

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 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Staples fell from 3,104 to 2,989 between 2000 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
20003,104
20202,989-115 (-4%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 9 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

89 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 89 fires within 5 miles of Staples between 1992 and 2019, burning about 933 acres in total. None started naturally. 17 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 burning43
Arson/incendiarism17
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Equipment and vehicle use9
Railroad operations and maintenance5
Recreation and ceremony5
Smoking1

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
30 September 2012Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
20 September 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
31 August 1996Debris and open burning3.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
26 July 1992Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
16 July 1999Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
10 June 1997Railroad operations and maintenance2.0 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
8 May 2016Equipment and vehicle use1.2 acresMinnesota Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Todd County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Staples: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: 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
Cary PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Todd County

Storms near this place

26 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Staples in 26 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 13 thunderstorm wind, 9 hail, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2000Tornado (F2)Staples1 hurtRoofs blown off homes and one business. At least one dozen homes damaged. Numerous large trees down. One minor injury in Staples due to flying glass. Tornado crossed over from Wadena county.
September 2014Thunderstorm WindStaples$50,000Several trees and power lines were blown down in the City of Staples. In addition, the Staples airport, approximately 1 mile north of downtown Staples, in Wadena County, had a measured wind gust of 79 mph at 531 CST.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindStaples$50,000Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. Some trees came down on homes and sheds. The roofs of two garages were blown off, and a camper was rolled about 40 feet. Most damage was in the south side of town.
July 2009Flash FloodStaples$25,000Several thunderstorm complexes moved through northern Todd and northwestern Morrison Counties where locally four to six inches of rain fell in less than two hours. Due to poor drainage and the excessive rainfall, flash flooding developed in the town of Staples where evacuation occurred in homes on 5th street, and power was shut off to Staples High Rise Apartments on 4th street due to the high water.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindStaples$15,000Roof damage occurred in the town of Staples along with power outages.
May 2022Tornado (EF1)Staples-A tornado developed in far northern Todd County and hit two farmsteads before exiting into Wadena County (see corresponding entry from NWS Grand Forks). At the first farmstead, a garage door was blown in and part of the garage roof came off. Maximum winds for the Todd County portion were estimated to be 90 mph.
July 2020Thunderstorm WindStaples-Several trees were blown down along with power lines.
July 2015Thunderstorm WindStaples-Downburst damage was noted north of the tornado track. Initially, wooden poles were leaning and several oak and pine trees were snapped, and this is where the strongest winds were noted. As the downburst entered Staples, dozens of large trees were uprooted and many large branches were broken from Airport Rd to the east side of town. Winds across Staples were estimated in the 60-70 mph range.
June 2005Thunderstorm WindStaples-A few trees were downed.
July 2004Thunderstorm WindStaples-A 10-inch diameter tree and numerous branches were downed.
July 2003Thunderstorm WindStaples-A wide swath of damaging wind accompanied a brief tornado that touched down 7 SW Philbrook. The NWS damage survey, however, determined that the vast majority of the damage in northeastern Todd County was due to the strong wind associated with this tornadic storm. The swath of damaging wind was about six miles wide and 9 miles long in Todd County (it continued for another three miles in Morrison County - see corresponding entry). Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of trees were downed by the winds that blew from northeast to southwest. Some trees fell on houses, outbuildings, and vehicles. Many trees were felled in the community of Philbrook.
September 1998Thunderstorm WindStaples-Wind gust to 78 mph reported at Staples Municipal Airport, just to the north of Staples in Wadena County. Trees blown down in the city of Staples. Buildings damaged at farmstead on the northwest edge of the city. Roof torn off Stern Rubber Company. Rooftop heating and cooling units ripped off McKechnie Tool and Engineering.
August 1998Thunderstorm WindStaples-Trailer blown over. Several large trees blown over. Estimated windspeed.
June 1994Thunderstorm WindStaples-Strong thunderstorm winds damaged a store and blew down several large trees.
June 2025Funnel CloudStaples-no account filed
July 2022HailStaples-no account filed
July 2010HailStaples-no account filed
July 2008HailStaples-no account filed
July 2004HailStaples-no account filed
July 2003HailStaples-no account filed
April 2002HailStaples-no account filed
September 2002HailStaples-no account filed
August 1997HailStaples-no account filed
July 1996HailStaples-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindStaples-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindStaples-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Todd 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
Philbrook6.4 miles10
Bertha15.6 miles9
Hewitt15.7 miles9
Clarissa17.6 miles9
Eagle Bend18.6 miles9
Browerville19.0 miles9
Long Prairie26.6 miles9
Clotho26.7 miles9

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 StaplesAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2227729The 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 652547. 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.