Hays, Montana
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1943 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Fort Belknap census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59527. The Survey maps it on the Hays quadrangle. 996 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,533 feet above sea level.
On record in Hays
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
Ervin Homestead-Gist Bottom Historic Districtlisted 2016- St. Paul's Mission Churchlisted 2020
Population over time
2 figuresHays grew from 843 to 996 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 | 843 | |
| 2020 | 996 | +153 (+18%) |
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.
- 1943 USGS Landusky quadrangle1:125000
- 1954 USGS Lewistown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Lewistown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1971 USGS Hays quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Zortman quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
259 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 259 fires within 5 miles of Hays between 1992 and 2020, burning about 2,568 acres in total. 30 started naturally. 10 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 | 67 |
| Fireworks | 36 |
| Smoking | 35 |
| Natural | 30 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 27 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 23 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 21 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2006 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Fort Belknap Agency | PINE GROVE |
| 9 September 1994 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fort Belknap Agency | PLAYGROUND |
| 6 September 1999 | Smoking | under an acre | Fort Belknap Agency | 3-BULL |
| 3 September 2005 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 2.0 acres | Fort Belknap Agency | ESSERT |
| 3 September 1994 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fort Belknap Agency | PINE GROVE |
| 29 September 2004 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Fort Belknap Agency | HAYS DUMPS |
| 29 September 1994 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Fort Belknap Agency | JUDY |
| 28 September 2001 | Smoking | under an acre | Fort Belknap Agency | CRAZY |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
4 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Hays: 3 past producers, 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Bug Mine | Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc | Past Producer | 1893, 1894 | |
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Limestone Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Molybdenum | Molybdenum | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
16 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Hays in 16 storm reports between 2000 and 2022: 13 hail, 1 wildfire, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2022 | Hail | Hays | - | Pictures relayed via social media of very large hail near Hays. Time of event from radar. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Hays | - | Reported half inch to golfball sized hail. mostly just heavy rainfall right now and calm winds. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Hays | - | A member of the public relayed a report of half dollar sized hail through social media. |
| July 2021 | Hail | Hays | - | A member of the public relayed images of golf ball sized hail through social media. |
| July 2021 | Tornado (EFU) | Hays | - | A supercell moved southeast across Blaine County early Tuesday|evening. This storm produced large hail of nearly two inches in|diameter along its path. As the severe storm approached Hays,|rotation strengthened slightly to where a brief tornado occurred.|The tornado occurred over open ranchland to the west of Montana|Highway 66 and, to our knowledge, no damage occurred. The|supercell then started to weaken as it move southeast between Hays|and Lodge Pole with the tornado likely lifting before it reached|Highway 66. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Hays | - | Quarter sized hail reported during the second storm to pass over Hays, MT. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Hays | - | Quarter to ping pong ball sized hail reported in Hays, MT with the third system that tracked through the area. In addition, gusty winds shook the truck the truck. Gusts were estimated to be around 50 MPH. |
| June 2021 | Hail | Hays | - | Public report from Hays, MT of ping pong to tennis ball sized hail when the first system moved through. |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Hays | - | A thunderstorm produced a wind gust to 70 mph and hail 2 inches in diameter at Hays 13NNW. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Hays | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped .88 inch diameter hail at Hays 8N. The hail lasted about 30 minutes and covered the ground to a depth of 1 inch. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Hays | - | A severe thunderstorm dropped 1.5 inch diameter hail at Hays 6N. The hail lasted about 15 minutes and covered the ground to a depth of 2 inches in some places. |
| July 2000 | Wildfire | Hays | - | Ivan fire, 500 acres burned, human caused. |
| June 2005 | Hail | Hays | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Hays | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Hail | Hays | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Hays | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pine Grove | 1.0 miles | 9 | |
| Dry Lake | 5.0 miles | 7 | |
| Lodge Pole | 9.1 miles | 7 | |
| Big Warm (historical) | 13.2 miles | 7 | |
| Cow Island (historical) | 18.9 miles | 11 | |
| Rattlesnake | 20.2 miles | 10 | |
| Power Plant (historical) | 20.4 miles | 10 | |
| Cleveland | 31.1 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 Hays | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q957818 | 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 772273. 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.




