Turtle Lake, Montana
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1920 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Flathead Reservation census division. It lies in ZIP code area 59860. It stands on Centipede Creek. The Survey maps it on the East Bay quadrangle. 251 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,097 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresTurtle Lake grew from 194 to 251 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 | 194 | |
| 2010 | 209 | +15 (+8%) |
| 2020 | 251 | +42 (+20%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 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.
- 1920 USGS Flathead Lake quadrangle1:125000
- 1956 USGS Wallace quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1960 USGS Wallace quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS East Bay quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Polson quadrangle1:100000
- 1988 USGS East Bay quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
118 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 118 fires within 5 miles of Turtle Lake between 1993 and 2020, burning about 227 acres in total. 21 started naturally. 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 24 |
| Debris and open burning | 23 |
| Natural | 21 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 14 |
| Fireworks | 13 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 11 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Other causes | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 2001 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Flathead Agency | BURNBARREL |
| 8 September 2014 | Debris and open burning | 1.2 acres | Flathead Agency | MTN. VISTA |
| 6 September 2020 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Flathead Agency | LIGHT RD |
| 6 September 1999 | Misuse of fire by a minor | under an acre | Flathead Agency | COURVILLE |
| 30 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | HELLROARING 1 |
| 29 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Flathead Agency | PINE TREE LANE |
| 27 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Flathead Agency | NORTHWOOD |
| 26 September 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Flathead Agency | HACK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Turtle Lake: 9 unknowns, 1 producer. 1 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 | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Mission Valley Concrete | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mountain View (historical) | 1.7 miles | 9 | |
| Belle-Vue Court | 3.9 miles | 7 | |
| Dunham | 4.7 miles | 8 | |
| Finley Point | 4.8 miles | 9 | |
| Polson | 5.0 miles | 7 | |
| Pablo | 5.3 miles | 8 | |
| Allard (historical) | 6.0 miles | 9 | |
| Kerr | 6.3 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 Turtle Lake | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q955975 | 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 1853190. 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.





