Walnut Grove, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Walnut Grove City. It lies in ZIP code area 56180. The Survey maps it on the Walnut Grove quadrangle. 751 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,217 feet above sea level.
On record in Walnut Grove
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 1 record
Walnut Grove Creamery Associationlisted 2006
Population over time
2 figuresWalnut Grove fell from 871 to 751 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 | 871 | |
| 2020 | 751 | -120 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 9 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.
- 1953 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS New Ulm quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Walnut Grove quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Tracy quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
3,964 words on this townshipThe History of Redwood County, Minnesota, published 1916 names this settlement in its chapter on Walnut Grove City. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
The vicinity of Walnut Grove has attracted attention since the earliest days by reason of its seventy acres of heavy black walnut. No explanation has ever been made of the presence of these great trees in a region where other trees grew but sparsely, and in a spot far removed from any other groves of the same
Passage source: The History of Redwood County, Minnesota, published 1916.
An early settler in North Hero was Thomas Allen. Allen then a young man of twenty -five years, came to this locality, and after looking about, filed on the southwest quarter of section 20. He then returned to his home and spent the winter. In the spring of 1872 he came back, driving an ox team, and reaching here ahead of the railroad which was put through that year. Mr. Allen still lives in Walnut Grove.
Passage source: The History of Redwood County, Minnesota, published 1916.
Among the earliest settlers were Elias and Lafayette Bedal. The first building on the site of the present village of Walnut Grove was the claim shanty of Elias Bedal. It was in 1873 that Lafayette Bedal was appointed the first postmaster, a position he held until 1879, when J. H. Anderson received the appointment.
Passage source: The History of Redwood County, Minnesota, published 1916.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Walnut Grove City - it names this place 13 more 13 times.
Storms near this place
21 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Walnut Grove in 21 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 11 hail, 8 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | Flash Flood | Walnut Grove | - | Law enforcement reported water over portions of US Highway 14 near Walnut Grove, to the point where road/lane markers cannot be seen. |
| May 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | Six inch diameter branches were downed. |
| June 2003 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | Minor damage to corn. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | Scattered trees down. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | Numerous 8 inch branches downed. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | Trees and power lines down. |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | Large trees down. Estimated windspeed. |
| July 1995 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | 15,000 acres of crops destroyed. |
| June 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | Several trees were blown down from strong thunderstorm winds. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| April 2011 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| August 2009 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| May 2000 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Walnut Grove | - | 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 Walnut Grove | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q735022 | 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 653743. 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.
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.





