Stephen, Minnesota
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Stephen City. It lies in ZIP code area 56757. The Survey maps it on the Stephen East quadrangle. 592 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 830 feet above sea level.
Research this city
Population over time
2 figuresStephen fell from 658 to 592 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 | 658 | |
| 2020 | 592 | -66 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 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.
- 1918 USGS Argyle quadrangle1:62500
- 1952 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Stephen quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Stephen East quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
9 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Stephen between 1997 and 2020, burning about 324 acres in total. None started naturally. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 September 2012 | Arson/incendiarism | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 August 2007 | Debris and open burning | 200 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 40 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 20 May 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 16 May 1997 | Debris and open burning | 62 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 November 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 November 2020 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
46 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Stephen in 46 storm reports between 1997 and 2022: 29 hail, 16 thunderstorm wind, 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 2006 | Tornado (F1) | Stephen | $10,000 | This tornado originated in Kittson county 3 miles east-northeast of Donaldson at 1602 CST. The tornado blew over a road sign and caused additional extreme wind stress as crops were swirled by the winds. Peak wind speeds were estimated at 80 mph. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $5,000 | A few hailstones and very strong winds flattened crops. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $5,000 | Trees were uprooted and several small buildings were overturned. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $1,000 | Strong thunderstorm winds produced tree damage. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $500 | Trees were blown down. |
| June 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $500 | Large tree limbs were blown down. |
| August 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $500 | A large tree was blown down and another tree fell on a porch roof. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $500 | Tree limbs were blown down. |
| August 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | $300 | Trees were blown down. |
| July 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | Peak wind gust was measured at a personal weather station. |
| June 2020 | Hail | Stephen | - | Dime to quarter sized hail was reported along highway 75. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | Strong wind gusts were reported. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | Several large tree branches were broken down in shelterbelts along U. S. Highway 75. Intermittent tree damage continued into and north of Stephen, from northern Tamarac Township into Sinnott Township. |
| July 2010 | Hail | Stephen | - | Very heavy rain fell with a few large hail stones. |
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | An evergreen was uprooted and small trees were blown down. |
| August 2007 | Hail | Stephen | - | The hail was observed by an NWS employee examining damage from a prior storm event. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | The wind gust was measured by a NDAWN mesonet wind sensor. |
| August 2007 | Hail | Stephen | - | This storm began in southwest Kittson County and crossed into northwest Marshall County. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | Trees were blown down in Stephen. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | A wooden power pole was snapped and power lines were blown down. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stephen | - | A water truck was rocked back and forth. |
| August 1997 | Hail | Stephen | - | A hailstorm left a damage path 4 miles wide by 10 miles long over western Marshall county. 25,000 acres were destroyed by hail. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2008 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Stephen | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Hail | Stephen | - | 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 Stephen | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2227113 | 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 652619. 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.








