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Bigfork, Montana

12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Creston-Bigfork census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59911. It stands on Swan River. The Survey maps it on the Bigfork quadrangle. 5,118 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,979 feet above sea level.

Bigfork within Flathead County

On record in Bigfork

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

Population over time

2 figures

Bigfork grew from 4,270 to 5,118 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.

YearPeople Change
20104,270
20205,118+848 (+20%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 12 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

170 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 170 fires within 5 miles of Bigfork between 1992 and 2020, burning about 119 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 4 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined76
Debris and open burning46
Recreation and ceremony13
Natural10
Power generation/transmission/distribution8
Arson/incendiarism4
Smoking4
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Fireworks3
Equipment and vehicle use3

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
7 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeRIPPLING WATERS ROAD
4 September 2001Debris and open burningunder an acreNorthwestern Land Officenot named
3 September 2009Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeEAST ECHO LAKE
24 September 1994Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeMILE MRK 29 HWY 35
23 September 1994Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeUPPER JEWEL BASIN RD
21 September 2003Debris and open burningunder an acreNorthwestern Land Officenot named
21 September 1999Debris and open burningunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeAERO LANE
2 September 2013Debris and open burningunder an acreNorthwestern Land OfficeEASTMAN DRIVE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Flathead County

Storms near this place

18 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bigfork in 18 storm reports between 1998 and 2020: 9 hail, 5 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 1 flood. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2000Thunderstorm WindBigfork1 killed, 1 hurtno account filed
August 2019Thunderstorm WindBigfork$50,000Multiple thunderstorms collided together just south of Flathead Lake and produced a severe gust front that tracked north to the Flathead Valley. Multiple observers reported that the strong winds lasted for up to 15 minutes. Dozens of toppled trees, damaged power poles, transmission and distribution lines were reported from Bigfork up to Columbia Falls from strong winds. Power outages lasted for 24 hours. The golf course in Bigfork reported losing 59 trees, mostly spruce from 20 to 30 feet tall with diameters between 18 inches and 2.5 feet. The restaurant at the golf course lost all their food due to the power outage.
July 2007Tornado (EF0)Bigfork$8,000The public reported a waterspout on Flathead lake along the Flathead/Lake County line. A sailboat at this location was spun around at least once in a counterclockwise direction and then sank.
July 2011HailBigfork$1,000Trained spotter estimated nickel sized hail, with damage to apples and cherries in an orchard. A truck five miles north of Bigfork received some dents in it's hood.
November 2013Tornado (EF0)Bigfork-A cold core upper level trough dropped out of British Columbia providing the necessary lift and instability to trigger showers across western Montana early on November 4th. The unstable atmosphere saw a 24 degree difference between Flathead Lake water temperatures(8.9 deg. C) and at 9,665 ft. MSL(700 millibars) -15 deg. C. A convergent boundary set up southwest of Wood's Bay with cool northerly winds coming out of the Flathead Valley and relatively mild southerly winds moving across the lake. This boundary provided the vertical lift to develop the band of graupel and snow showers. A waterspout was spotted by passers-by traveling on MT-83 near mile-marker 24. Viewing the photos and video that Mike and Dana Marchetti took, it appears that there could have been multiple vortices based on darkened shadows in the vicinity of the main vortex. The waterspout remained over Flathead Lake and no damage was reported.
October 2011Heavy RainBigfork-Equipment at Noisy basin reported 0.70 inches of rainfall in 12 hours.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindBigfork-The lodge owner in Wood's Bay reported an estimated wind gust to 60 mph about 1 mile east of town on the county line.
June 2020HailBigfork-no account filed
July 2006HailBigfork-no account filed
June 2006HailBigfork-no account filed
June 2006FloodBigfork-no account filed
June 2006HailBigfork-no account filed
June 2006HailBigfork-no account filed
August 2006HailBigfork-no account filed
August 2006HailBigfork-no account filed
March 2003Thunderstorm WindBigfork-no account filed
June 2002HailBigfork-no account filed
May 1998Thunderstorm WindBigfork-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Flathead County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Holt2.4 miles12
Swan River3.2 miles12
Swan River (historical)3.2 miles12
Negro Prairie (historical)4.9 miles12
Bear Creek Village5.1 miles12
Mud Lake (historical)5.5 miles12
Somers8.0 miles11
Lakeside8.6 miles11

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 BigforkAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q967392The 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 806295. 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.