Box Elder, Montana
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Rocky Boy's census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59521. The Survey maps it on the Box Elder quadrangle. 85 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,677 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresBox Elder fell from 794 to 85 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 794 | |
| 2010 | 87 | -707 (-89%) |
| 2020 | 85 | -2 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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.
- 1904 USGS Boxelder quadrangle1:62500
- 1906 USGS Boxelder quadrangle1:62500
- 1919 USGS Big Sandy quadrangle1:125000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Shelby quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Shelby quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Box Elder quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Lonesome Lake quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
387 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 387 fires within 5 miles of Box Elder between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,343 acres in total. 15 started naturally. 109 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 | 109 |
| Debris and open burning | 77 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 61 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 49 |
| Fireworks | 44 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 18 |
| Natural | 15 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | CORP |
| 9 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.4 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | BROWNS |
| 9 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 12 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | NORTH FRESNO RD |
| 5 September 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | BLAME |
| 4 September 1997 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 35 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | WESTBENCH |
| 30 September 2001 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.5 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | DAM |
| 27 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Rocky Boy's Agency | PONY |
| 26 September 2009 | Debris and open burning | 12 acres | Rocky Boy's Agency | CONSTRUCTION |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Box Elder: 2 unknowns. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
13 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Box Elder in 13 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 6 hail, 3 funnel cloud, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box Elder | $40,000 | OVERTURNED A TRAILER...DAMAGED FENCES AND ROOFS |
| June 2023 | Funnel Cloud | Box Elder | - | Public submitted photos of a funnel cloud near Rocky Boy, taken from Highway 87. |
| June 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Box Elder | - | Broadcast media submitted photos of tornado across rural Hill County. Two additional funnel clouds were filmed near the ongoing tornado. Due to limited access to the touchdown area, no storm survey was able to be conducted. Movement was to the west/northwest and was associated with a strengthening thunderstorm. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Box Elder | - | Reported mostly quarter-sized hail with some golf-ball sized. Also reported 0.80 inch precipitation over 30 minutes. Time estimated by radar. |
| June 2016 | Hail | Box Elder | - | A thunderstorm dropped 1.25 inch diameter hail at Box Elder. Also, 1 inch diameter hail was reported at Havre 8S. |
| July 2011 | Hail | Box Elder | - | A thunderstorm dropped 1.75 inch diameter hail at Box Elder 3N. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Box Elder | - | Public reported flash flooding south of the Bears Paw Mountains due to a slow-moving thunderstorm. Radar indicated that up to 4 inches of rainfall were possible with the storm. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Box Elder | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped 1 inch diameter hail at Box Elder 12E. |
| August 2005 | Hail | Box Elder | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Hail | Box Elder | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Box Elder | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Funnel Cloud | Box Elder | - | no account filed |
| August 1996 | Funnel Cloud | Box Elder | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sangrey | 10.5 miles | 9 | |
| Laredo | 10.5 miles | 10 | |
| Azure | 11.3 miles | 9 | |
| Saint Pierre | 11.7 miles | 10 | |
| Rocky Boy's Agency | 12.6 miles | 9 | |
| Fresno | 17.3 miles | 10 | |
| Kremlin | 17.9 miles | 10 | |
| Burnham | 18.1 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 Box Elder | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q955705 | 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 802050. 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.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
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.






