Coleharbor, North Dakota
9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1972. It stands in Victoria Township. It lies in ZIP code area 58531. The Survey maps it on the Coleharbor quadrangle. 59 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,906 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresColeharbor fell from 79 to 59 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 | 79 | |
| 2020 | 59 | -20 (-25%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 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.
- 1929 USGS Coleharbor quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS McClusky quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS McClusky quadrangle1:250000
- 1972 USGS Coleharbor quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Coleharbor between 1999 and 2012, burning about 3 acres in total. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3 |
| Natural | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 August 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Audubon National Wildlife Refuge | BALE |
| 15 July 2006 | Natural | 1.9 acres | Audubon National Wildlife Refuge | POWERLINE |
| 6 April 2012 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Audubon National Wildlife Refuge | GOOD FRIDAY POWERLINE |
| 15 March 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Audubon National Wildlife Refuge | 83 FIRE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
27 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Coleharbor in 27 storm reports between 2000 and 2024: 14 thunderstorm wind, 11 hail, 1 lightning, 1 funnel cloud. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | 2 hurt, $3,000,000 | A National Weather Service storm damage survey was completed 0715 CST to 1500 CST the day following the event, July 13, 2006. NWS meteorologist was accompanied by the Mclean County Emergency Manager. Damage was extensive and severe. Nearly every building in the town of about 80 people was damaged. The degree of damage varied with heavier damage to structures and trees on the west side of the town, including to a school built in 1916 and used until the mid 1960s. Just across highway 83, on the west side of town, an empty railroad coal car was off the tracks and on its side. The structural and tree damage pattern, coupled with comments from eye witnesses and 88D RADAR data, led to the determination that the event was a wet microburst with wind speeds in excess of 100 mph. Storms were multicellular in structure. Witnesses described a shelf cloud approaching, followed by the high wind, and then very heavy rain. There were two very minor injuries and no fatalities. The two injuries were in a camper that was rolled by the wind and destroyed. Coleharbor covers an area about 1/4 mile by 1/4 mile. Damage covered an area just under 4 km or just under 2 1/2 miles on a side. Outside of town the damage included a barn, many trees, and moved straw or hay bales. The ND Department of Transportation had weather instrumentation along highway 83 on the west side of Coleharbor. The Environmental Sensor Station had an engineered wind resistance of 120 mph and was lying on the ground following the storm. See photo. See entry for Mclean County 1 E Coleharbor 1828 CST to 1837 CST July 12, 2006. |
| July 2006 | Lightning | Coleharbor | $15,000 | 75 year old barn was struck by lightning, caught fire, and was destroyed. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | $10,000 | Roof blown off building and trees down. |
| July 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | $8,000 | Measured with a Davis weather instrument. Severe criteria wind from 1828 CST to 1837 CST. Gust peaked at 92 mph. Damage to outbuilding garage door. A witness 1 E Coleharbor who is self taught in the science of meteorology described a shelf cloud approach followed by the high damaging wind. |
| August 2019 | Hail | Coleharbor | $5,000 | Wind driven hail led to tree and crop damage. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | $5,000 | The public reported an estimated severe thunderstorm wind gust of 70 mph. Tree branches were broken. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | $5,000 | Storage facility under construction was damaged. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | Wind driven hail led to crop damage. |
| July 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | Heavy rain accompanied the strong thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | No report of damage was received from this event. |
| July 2008 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | No reports of damage were received. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | Peak gust recorded by a Davis Wind Recorder instrument. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| May 2016 | Funnel Cloud | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| April 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| September 2014 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| July 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| May 2006 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Coleharbor | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Coleharbor | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Riverdale Junction | 4.0 miles | 8 | |
| Underwood | 7.6 miles | 8 | |
| Riverdale | 8.5 miles | 7 | |
| Garrison | 12.6 miles | 8 | |
| Falkirk | 14.3 miles | 9 | |
| Turtle Lake | 17.8 miles | 8 | |
| Max | 19.5 miles | 5 | |
| Washburn | 20.4 miles | 9 |
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 Coleharbor | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2447209 | 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 1028419. 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.
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.



