Swan Lake, Montana
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Woods Bay-Rollins census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59911. It stands on Groom Creek. The Survey maps it on the Swan Lake quadrangle. 102 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,104 feet above sea level.
On record in Swan Lake
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
- Swan Lake Rock House Historic Districtlisted 1984
Population over time
2 figuresSwan Lake fell from 113 to 102 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 | 113 | |
| 2020 | 102 | -11 (-10%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 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.
- 1955 USGS Choteau quadrangle1:250000
- 1957 USGS Choteau quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Choteau quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Choteau quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Swan Lake quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1976 USGS Choteau quadrangle1:250000
- 1988 USGS Swan Peak quadrangle1:100000
- 1994 USGS Swan lake quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
58 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of Swan Lake between 1992 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. 25 started naturally. None was 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 25 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 14 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
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 1995 | Smoking | under an acre | Flathead National Forest | SIX MILE () |
| 8 September 2000 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Flathead National Forest | DEER LICK |
| 7 September 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Flathead National Forest | BOND CREEK |
| 6 September 2009 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Flathead National Forest | LOST |
| 5 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | BUG |
| 4 September 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Northwestern Land Office | SWAN RIVER |
| 4 September 2010 | Natural | under an acre | Lost Trail Wildlife Refuge | SWAN RIVER |
| 2 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Flathead National Forest | 6 MILE |
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 Swan Lake: 2 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Copper, Silver, Copper, Silver. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swan Lake Copper - Silver Occurrence | Copper, Silver | Occurrence | Malachite | |
| Unamed Location | Copper, Silver | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
8 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Swan Lake in 8 storm reports between 1993 and 2024: 6 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain, 1 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swan Lake | $500,000 | Many trees were blown down with the loss of power and telephone. |
| May 1994 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swan Lake | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swan Lake | $8,000 | Sheriff reported 30 trees blown down over Highway 83 10 miles northwest of Condon. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swan Lake | $6,000 | The Lake County Emergency Manager reported trees blown down on Highway 35 near Blue Bay along Flathead Lake. |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swan Lake | $5,000 | Public reported widespread tree damage near Lion Creek northeast of Condon. Many spruce trees 1.5 feet in diameter snapped. |
| August 2024 | Hail | Swan Lake | - | The public measured 1.5 inch hail near Ferndale east of Big Fork. |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swan Lake | - | The highway department reported several trees blown down across highway MT-83 near mile marker 48. |
| October 2012 | Heavy Rain | Swan Lake | - | A spotter measured 0.34 inch rainfall in 1 hour. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bear Dance | 9.8 miles | 8 | |
| Woods Bay | 12.0 miles | 12 | |
| Ferndale | 12.1 miles | 12 | |
| Idlewise Court | 13.5 miles | 12 | |
| Allard (historical) | 15.7 miles | 9 | |
| Finley Point | 17.6 miles | 9 | |
| Rollins | 18.8 miles | 8 | |
| Kings Point | 19.7 miles | 7 |
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 Swan Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6136615 | 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 791786. 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.







