Willow River, Minnesota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Willow River City. It lies in ZIP code area 55795. It stands on Willow River. The Survey maps it on the Willow River quadrangle. 384 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,040 feet above sea level.
On record in Willow River
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 2 records
Willow River Rutabaga Warehouse and Processing Plantlisted 1990- John Doboszenski Farmsteadlisted 1980
Population over time
13 figuresWillow River fell from 466 to 384 between 1900 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 466 | |
| 1910 | 212 | -254 (-55%) |
| 1920 | 247 | +35 (+17%) |
| 1930 | 253 | +6 (+2%) |
| 1940 | 314 | +61 (+24%) |
| 1950 | 294 | -20 (-6%) |
| 1960 | 343 | +49 (+17%) |
| 1970 | 331 | -12 (-3%) |
| 1980 | 303 | -28 (-8%) |
| 1990 | 284 | -19 (-6%) |
| 2000 | 309 | +25 (+9%) |
| 2010 | 415 | +106 (+34%) |
| 2020 | 384 | -31 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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 Duluth quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Duluth quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Moose Lake quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Sandstone quadrangle1:100000
- 1981 USGS Willow River quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
190 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 190 fires within 5 miles of Willow River between 1993 and 2020, burning about 311 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 25 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 84 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 36 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 29 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 25 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 7 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2006 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 22 September 1998 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 21 September 1998 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 13 September 2011 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 1 September 1998 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 31 August 1998 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 30 August 1999 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Minnesota Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
15 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Willow River in 15 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 7 thunderstorm wind, 6 hail, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2018 | Flash Flood | Willow River | - | Water was reported over County Highway 41 near Willow River by local law enforcement. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | A 3 to 4 diameter tree was snapped off. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | Thirty to 40 trees were blown down around town. Most were uprooted, but some were broken about 15 to 20 feet above the ground. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | A few trees were blown down in the Willow River Campground area. |
| August 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | Large pine trees, about 12 inches in diameter, were blown down. |
| May 2012 | Flash Flood | Willow River | - | Scotch Pine Road was washed out for 1000 yards at Highway 41. |
| August 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | Trees were blown down from Willow River to Sturgeon Lake. Wind speed is estimated. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | Strong thunderstorm winds blew down many large trees and power lines across Carlton and Pine Counties. Two trees fell on a mobile home in Moose Lake. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Willow River | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Willow River | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Willow River | - | no account filed |
| June 2018 | Hail | Willow River | - | no account filed |
| August 2014 | Hail | Willow River | - | no account filed |
| May 2010 | Hail | Willow River | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Willow River | - | 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 Willow River | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1815091 | 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 654204. 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.




