West Union, Minnesota
8 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1986. It stands in West Union Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56389. The Survey maps it on the West Union quadrangle. 92 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,339 feet above sea level.
On record in West Union
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
Population over time
2 figuresWest Union fell from 111 to 92 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 | 111 | |
| 2020 | 92 | -19 (-17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 8 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 Cloud quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Saint Cloud quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS West Union quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Lake Minnewaska quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
6 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of West Union between 1992 and 2018, burning about 341 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 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 | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2010 | Equipment and vehicle use | 10 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 4 April 1992 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 28 March 2005 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 18 November 2011 | Recreation and ceremony | 21 acres | Litchfield Wetland Management District | GETTEL |
| 18 October 2018 | Debris and open burning | 307 acres | Fergus Falls Wetland Management District | SCHULTZ LAKE WF |
| 1 January 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
16 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names West Union in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 11 hail, 4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2020 | Tornado (EF0) | West Union | $10,000 | A tornado damaged a garage that was rotated slightly, and its door was bowed out, and a few shingles were damaged. Other damage was associated with large tree limbs blown down along the tornado's path. |
| May 2013 | Hail | West Union | $200 | Ping Pong ball size hail broke the windshield of a truck. |
| June 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Union | - | A trained spotter reported a 20 inch diameter pine tree snapped, with a photo relayed via social media. |
| June 2023 | Hail | West Union | - | A trained spotter reported that the hail had shredded some corn as seen in a photo that the spotter provided to NWS Twin Cities. |
| July 2019 | Hail | West Union | - | This is the continuation of a swath of large hail that developed across Stevens County, and moved northeast across northwest Pope, southeast Douglas, and over the southern part of Todd County. There was a measured report of golf ball size hail north of West Union. This swath of large hail continued to north of Swanville. |
| June 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Union | - | A large tree was blown down north of West Union. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Union | - | Large trees blown down on house causing damage. Several other trees also toppled. |
| September 2005 | Hail | West Union | - | Golf ball sized hail was reported in the northeast corner of West Union Township. A vehicle and the roof of a house were damaged. |
| July 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | West Union | - | Few trees and power lines down. |
| August 2025 | Hail | West Union | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Hail | West Union | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | West Union | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | West Union | - | no account filed |
| June 2007 | Hail | West Union | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | West Union | - | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Hail | West Union | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Sauk | 9.8 miles | 8 | |
| Gutches Grove | 11.9 miles | 8 | |
| Spaulding | 12.3 miles | 8 | |
| Round Prairie | 12.7 miles | 8 | |
| Ward Springs | 14.8 miles | 8 | |
| Clotho | 15.3 miles | 9 | |
| Long Prairie | 16.6 miles | 9 | |
| Grey Eagle | 17.9 miles | 10 |
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 West Union | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2227597 | 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 654019. 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.





