White Earth, Minnesota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in White Earth Township. It lies in ZIP code area 56591. The Survey maps it on the White Earth quadrangle. 522 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,532 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresWhite Earth fell from 580 to 522 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 | 580 | |
| 2020 | 522 | -58 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 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.
- 1954 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1957 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Bemidji quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS White Earth quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Lake Itasca quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
820 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 820 fires within 5 miles of White Earth between 1992 and 2020, burning about 9,583 acres in total. None started naturally. 548 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 | 548 |
| Debris and open burning | 181 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 50 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 26 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 6 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Other causes | 3 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | 550FIRE |
| 8 June 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | BARKSKINS |
| 1 June 1997 | Arson/incendiarism | 180 acres | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 9 May 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | CRIB FIRE |
| 9 May 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | RAIN 2 |
| 9 May 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | RAIN 3 |
| 9 May 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | CATTAIL DITCH |
| 9 May 2016 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Agency | RAIN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
18 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names White Earth in 18 storm reports between 2000 and 2024: 11 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2010 | Flash Flood | White Earth | $10,000 | Water flowed over Becker County 109 south of White Earth. Several other secondary roads near the Becker and Mahnomen county line were flooded or washed out due to the excessive rain. |
| June 2024 | Hail | White Earth | - | Public reports large hail in White Earth MN. |
| May 2023 | Hail | White Earth | - | Becker county EM reports nickels to quarters. |
| August 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | White Earth | - | Several trees were blown down along county road 144. |
| May 2019 | Hail | White Earth | - | Lots of dime to nickel sized hail was reported, with a few up to quarter size. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | White Earth | - | Roofing and siding were torn off a trailer home and numerous large branches were blown down near Nett Lake. |
| August 2018 | Hail | White Earth | - | Dime to quarter sized hail fell with very heavy rain. |
| August 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | White Earth | - | The roof was torn off a home on Fishhook Lake. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | White Earth | - | Several small to medium sized trees were blown down. |
| June 2007 | Funnel Cloud | White Earth | - | Spotters at the Indian Health Service observed a garbage bag spiral into the updraft area of the storm, but no touchdown or damage occurred. |
| June 2005 | Flash Flood | White Earth | - | Water flowed over county road 34 near Strawberry Lake. |
| June 2017 | Hail | White Earth | - | no account filed |
| August 2015 | Hail | White Earth | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | White Earth | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | White Earth | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Hail | White Earth | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | White Earth | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | White Earth | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ogema | 4.3 miles | 9 | |
| Richwood | 8.5 miles | 10 | |
| Callaway | 8.6 miles | 9 | |
| Westbury | 12.9 miles | 9 | |
| Elbow Lake Village | 15.8 miles | 10 | |
| Elbow Lake | 16.2 miles | 10 | |
| Audubon | 17.7 miles | 11 | |
| Rochert | 18.3 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 White Earth | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2615313 | 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 654079. 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.




