Wanamingo, Minnesota
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1989. It stands in Wanamingo City. It lies in ZIP code area 55983. It stands on Shingle Creek. The Survey maps it on the Wanamingo quadrangle. 1,113 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,053 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresWanamingo grew from 1,086 to 1,113 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 | 1,086 | |
| 2020 | 1,113 | +27 (+2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 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.
- 1953 USGS Saint Paul quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS St. Paul quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Saint Paul quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS St. Paul quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Wanamingo quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1985 USGS Rochester quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Rochester quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
In the county-history sources
2,075 words on this townshipGoodhue County, Minnesota, Past and Present, published 1893 names this settlement in its chapter on Wanamingo Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.
This town is bounded north by Leon, east by Miuneola, west by Holden and south by Cherry Grove. The north branch of the Zumbro river runs through the southern portion of this town, and a branch of the Cannon, through the northwestern part. The surface is gently rolling, and the soil very fertile, well watered by many springs and running streams, and where these are not at hand, water is foand by digging a few feet below the surface.
Passage source: Goodhue County, Minnesota, Past and Present, published 1893.
The first settlers came here in 1854, and were natives of Norway. Early in that year Henry Nelson came to Dodgeville, Wisconsin, from California, where he had been staying a few years, and accumulated a snug little sum of money. About the same time his older brother, Torga Nelson, then a widower, came back to the same place from Australia, where he had also earned some money. Tliey then agreed to go to the northwest together and search for a home. After purchasing a team, they started, and after being on the way as far as Root river, they heard that the territory of Minnesota contained good farming land with wood and water.
Passage source: Goodhue County, Minnesota, Past and Present, published 1893.
After rambling over the new territory of Minnesota for three weeks, they came, on the 12th of June, to the place which is now called Wanamingo. They had for many days not seen any white persons but themselves. At about 11 a. m., on the day above named, they crossed the north fork of the Zumbro. Torga Nelson stopped his team and looking around saw there was a fine park, with beautiful land adjacent. He exclaimed : " Here I will live and die." His words have been fulfilled; he died in 1889, having lived in that place thirty-five years. The whole company found it to be the desirable country for settlement, and so began their improvements.
Passage source: Goodhue County, Minnesota, Past and Present, published 1893.
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 Wanamingo Township - it names this place 17 more 17 times.
Fires near this place
7 since 2003Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Wanamingo between 2003 and 2019, burning about 9 acres in total. None started naturally. None was 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
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 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 14 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 July 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 July 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 29 April 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 8 October 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 6.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 October 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Wanamingo: 4 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dierke Pit & Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Hader Quarry & Mill | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer | ||
| Lokens Pit & Mill | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Roscoe Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Producer |
Storms near this place
13 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Wanamingo in 13 storm reports between 1997 and 2019: 6 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 flash flood. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wanamingo | 2 hurt, $35,000 | The town of Zumbrota was hit quite hard with many trees uprooted, twisted in half and broken branches throughout the town. In addition, five houses were damaged. Power lines were taken down and power was out for 4 hours in some areas of town. In addition to the town of Zumbrota, the Shades of Sherwood campground had a tree fell on a camper and 2 girls were trapped inside and sustained minor injuries. |
| September 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wanamingo | $100,000 | The city of Wanamingo was hit hard with severe wind gusts. There were numerous full size trees blown down, branches everywhere, and other assorted damage. There was damage to one mobile home, plus damage to a few cars (broken windshields and dents) from falling trees. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wanamingo | - | Tree down across Highway 60. |
| May 2012 | Flash Flood | Wanamingo | - | Heavy rainfall across Goodhue County caused flooding on Highway 57, along the North Fork of the Zumbro River, north of Wanamingo, Minnesota. In addition, over two inches of rainfall was measured near Wanamingo. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Wanamingo | - | Three inch branches down. |
| August 2006 | Hail | Wanamingo | - | Automobile windows broken. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Wanamingo | - | Quarter sized hail fell for 10 minutes in Wanamingo Township, Section 16. |
| August 1997 | Tornado (F1) | Wanamingo | - | Several barns destroyed. Roof ripped off home on farmstead. Wall knocked down and roof ripped off storage facility at Soil Center. Damage estimated at $100,000. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Wanamingo | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Wanamingo | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Wanamingo | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Wanamingo | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Tornado (F0) | Wanamingo | - | 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.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hader | 4.3 miles | 11 | |
| Roscoe Center | 4.5 miles | 11 | |
| Bombay | 5.5 miles | 11 | |
| Roscoe | 5.6 miles | 11 | |
| Zumbrota | 6.5 miles | 11 | |
| Wastedo | 7.6 miles | 11 | |
| Forest Mills | 7.9 miles | 11 | |
| Nansen | 8.1 miles | 11 |
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 Wanamingo | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q727527 | 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 653758. 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.






