Dawson, North Dakota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1952 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Dawson City. It lies in ZIP code area 58428. The Survey maps it on the Dawson quadrangle. 74 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,752 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresDawson grew from 61 to 74 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 | 61 | |
| 2020 | 74 | +13 (+21%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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.
- 1952 USGS Dawson quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1953 USGS Jamestown quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Jamestown quadrangle1:250000
- 1985 USGS Steele quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
6 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 6 fires within 5 miles of Dawson between 1997 and 2018, burning about 3,089 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 August 2003 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge | SLADE WILDIFRE |
| 17 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 3,000 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | DAWSON |
| 29 June 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 10 acres | Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge | WEST GATE |
| 3 May 2018 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 10 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | RAILROAD FIRE (5-3-2018) |
| 26 May 2004 | Recreation and ceremony | 28 acres | Long Lake National Wildlife Refuge | SLADE 1 |
| 27 April 1997 | Recreation and ceremony | 39 acres | Slade National Wildlife Refuge | SLADE1 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
20 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dawson in 20 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 11 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind. 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 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $175,000 | Numerous very large trees were down around Lake Isabel, and a pontoon was flipped over. In one case a tree fell onto a lake home and crashed through the roof. |
| June 2014 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $150,000 | A damage survey assessed that strong thunderstorm winds moved from southeast to northwest over Lake Isabel. The worst damage occurred on the northwest side of the lake. Damage included uprooted and snapped trees, roofs torn from homes, damaged decks, and structures damaged from falling trees. |
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $15,000 | A variety of large trees were broken down, including a very large tree split at the base. |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $15,000 | Numerous large branches were snapped in the yard. Some trees were uprooted. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $15,000 | A dock on a lake was lofted by thunderstorm winds and pushed up against a cabin downwind. |
| July 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | $10,000 | The strong winds knocked down numerous small tree branches around Lake Isabel south of Dawson. Two pontoons were also flipped over. |
| June 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated by a trained spotter. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | The public estimated thunderstorm wind gusts of 60 mph. |
| June 2001 | Hail | Dawson | - | The hail fell on the Kidder/Logan county line. |
| June 2022 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| September 2018 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| June 2017 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| May 2014 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| August 2012 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Hail | Dawson | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Hail | Dawson | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tappen | 6.1 miles | 6 | |
| Steele | 8.8 miles | 7 | |
| Ladoga | 10.0 miles | 7 | |
| Crystal Springs | 14.6 miles | 7 | |
| Robinson | 19.0 miles | 7 | |
| Lake Williams | 19.7 miles | 7 | |
| Pettibone | 21.2 miles | 8 | |
| Tuttle | 22.9 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 Dawson | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2444373 | 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 1028621. 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.



