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.
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
- Kearney Rapids Bridgelisted 1994
- Swan River Bridgelisted 2015
Population over time
2 figuresBigfork 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 4,270 | |
| 2020 | 5,118 | +848 (+20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 12 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.
- 1943 USGS Kalispell quadrangle1:125000
- 1957 USGS Kalispell quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Kalispell quadrangle1:250000
- 1961 USGS Kalispell quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Bigfork quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1981 USGS Kalispell quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Bigfork quadrangle1:24000
- 1994 USGS Bigfork quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
170 since 1992Regional 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/undetermined | 76 |
| Debris and open burning | 46 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 13 |
| Natural | 10 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 8 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Fireworks | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
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 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | RIPPLING WATERS ROAD |
| 4 September 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | not named |
| 3 September 2009 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | EAST ECHO LAKE |
| 24 September 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | MILE MRK 29 HWY 35 |
| 23 September 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | UPPER JEWEL BASIN RD |
| 21 September 2003 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | not named |
| 21 September 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | AERO LANE |
| 2 September 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | EASTMAN DRIVE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
18 since 1998Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2000 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | 1 killed, 1 hurt | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | $50,000 | Multiple 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 2007 | Tornado (EF0) | Bigfork | $8,000 | The 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 2011 | Hail | Bigfork | $1,000 | Trained 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 2013 | Tornado (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 2011 | Heavy Rain | Bigfork | - | Equipment at Noisy basin reported 0.70 inches of rainfall in 12 hours. |
| June 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | 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 2020 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| July 2006 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Flood | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| March 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Bigfork | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Bigfork | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holt | 2.4 miles | 12 | |
| Swan River | 3.2 miles | 12 | |
| Swan River (historical) | 3.2 miles | 12 | |
| Negro Prairie (historical) | 4.9 miles | 12 | |
| Bear Creek Village | 5.1 miles | 12 | |
| Mud Lake (historical) | 5.5 miles | 12 | |
| Somers | 8.0 miles | 11 | |
| Lakeside | 8.6 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 Bigfork | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q967392 | 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 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.







