Viking, Minnesota
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Viking City. It lies in ZIP code area 56760. The Survey maps it on the Viking quadrangle. 79 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,070 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresViking fell from 104 to 79 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 | 104 | |
| 2020 | 79 | -25 (-24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 10 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 Viking quadrangle1:62500
- 1952 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Viking quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1967 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:100000
- 1992 USGS Thief River Falls quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
31 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Viking between 1997 and 2020, burning about 3,300 acres in total. None started naturally. 7 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 |
|---|---|
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 11 |
| Debris and open burning | 11 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 8.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 June 2017 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 19 June 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | 8.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 May 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 69 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 7 May 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 40 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 May 1997 | Debris and open burning | 15 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 27 May 1997 | Debris and open burning | 50 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Viking: 3 producers. 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arnie Samuelson Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Harstad Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Waswick Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
15 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Viking in 15 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 8 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 flash flood, 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 2001 | Flash Flood | Viking | $1,000 | Ditches overflowed near Viking. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Viking | - | Report from 1 mile north of Carpenters Corner in Marshall county. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Viking | - | Several poplar and ash trees were blown down in a farm yard. |
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Viking | - | Numerous tree branches were blown down. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Viking | - | Trees were blown down causing power outages. |
| July 2017 | Funnel Cloud | Viking | - | A thin ropey funnel was reported and photographed as it stretched across the updraft base of a thunderstorm. It persisted at the updraft base for a few minutes, but never descended toward the ground. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Viking | - | Several large tree branches were blown down. |
| May 2010 | Hail | Viking | - | The hail was mostly half-inch size, but a few stones were larger. |
| July 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Viking | - | A brief touchdown was noted in an open field. |
| July 2012 | Hail | Viking | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Hail | Viking | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Viking | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Viking | - | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Viking | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Viking | - | 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 Viking | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2200794 | 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 653655. 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.







