BlockBefore

Polson, Montana

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Flathead Reservation census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59860. The Survey maps it on the Polson quadrangle. 5,148 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,927 feet above sea level.

Polson within Lake County

On record in Polson

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Polson grew from 4,488 to 5,148 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
20104,488
20205,148+660 (+15%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 7 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

65 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Polson between 1994 and 2020, burning about 264 acres in total. 10 started naturally. 3 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 burning12
Natural10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Fireworks9
Recreation and ceremony7
Power generation/transmission/distribution7
Equipment and vehicle use6
Arson/incendiarism3
Other causes1
Misuse of fire by a minor1

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
8 September 2001Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreFlathead AgencyKERR
7 September 2013Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFlathead AgencyLOG HOUSE
6 September 2015Naturalunder an acreFlathead AgencySILVER FOX
26 September 2009Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyHACK
11 September 2017Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreFlathead AgencyWOLF POINT
1 September 1998Naturalunder an acreLolo National ForestSNIDER
9 August 2014Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreFlathead AgencyHAACK
9 August 2013Naturalunder an acreFlathead AgencyHAACK

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 17 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 17 workings within 5 miles of Polson: 15 unknowns, 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
QuarryStoneUnknown
QuarryStoneUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Lake County

Storms near this place

10 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Polson in 10 storm reports between 1997 and 2019: 5 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 2013Thunderstorm WindPolson$8,300A 72 foot, 26 inch diameter Douglas Fir fell down from very strong thunderstorm winds and crashed onto owners' house. Soil moisture was relatively dry, but as seen in photo much of the branches on the trunk except at the top had already been cut off before this event. A forester examined the tree and found that its roots had been cut on the west side of the tree before the event.
September 2019Heavy RainPolson-General rainfall of 1 to 2 inches fell across parts of the Flathead and Mission valleys eastward to the Continental Divide. Heavier amounts of 3 to 4 inches fell locally on the east side of Flathead Lake and in the Mission Mountains, which were near record 2-day totals for the month of September. Also, minor debris flows were noted on Hwy 35 between Bigfork and Polson with some water into the Bigfork after-school building.
May 2009HailPolson-Public reported nickel size hail and heavy rain from thunderstorm over the Irvine Flats area.
June 2007Thunderstorm WindPolson-The lodge owner in Wood's Bay reported an estimated wind gust to 60 mph about 1 mile east of town.
June 2006HailPolson-no account filed
June 2006HailPolson-no account filed
June 2006HailPolson-no account filed
August 2005Thunderstorm WindPolson-no account filed
August 2004Thunderstorm WindPolson-no account filed
August 1997HailPolson-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake 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
Belle-Vue Court1.2 miles7
Kerr1.8 miles7
Jette2.2 miles7
Rocky Point3.0 miles7
Turtle Lake5.0 miles9
Kings Point5.2 miles7
Mountain View (historical)5.7 miles9
Dunham6.1 miles8

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 PolsonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q963395The 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 775341. 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.