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Sawyer, North Dakota

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 1981. It stands in Sawyer City. It lies in ZIP code area 58781. It lies near Skinner Hill. The Survey maps it on the Sawyer quadrangle. 319 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,535 feet above sea level.

Sawyer within Ward County

Population over time

2 figures

Sawyer fell from 357 to 319 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
2010357
2020319-38 (-11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 11 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

3 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 3 fires within 5 miles of Sawyer between 2018 and 2019, burning about 7 acres in total. None 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
Equipment and vehicle use2
Debris and open burning1

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
11 September 2018Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service911181
14 July 2019Debris and open burning1.0 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service2019-20
18 October 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service1018181

Every fire recorded in Ward County

Storms near this place

31 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sawyer in 31 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 17 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. 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
June 2011Flash FloodSawyer$300,000Runoff from very heavy rain forced rapid dam releases along the Souris River which resulted in an overtopping of levees and eventual levee failure. Communities through Ward County along the Souris River were very severely impacted. A mandatory evacuation was ordered along the river, including this one for Sawyer. In the end the river flooding resulted in impacts to around 15,000 residents along the river. This levee ovetopping flash flooded these areas. Dollar damage indicated here is not all inclusive from the flooding.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindSawyer$15,000Severe thunderstorm winds resulted in several trees to be uprooted.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindSawyer-Thunderstorm wind gusts were estimated by a trained spotter.
July 2013Heavy RainSawyer-Heavy rainfall of 1.25 inches fell in 25 minutes in Sawyer.
July 2011HailSawyer-There were no reports of damage associated with the large hail.
July 2010HailSawyer-This was the first of two waves of large hail to impact the community of Sawyer during this episode.
July 2010HailSawyer-This was the second of two waves of large hail to impact Sawyer during this episode.
June 2008HailSawyer-Penny to quarter size hail was reported.
June 2007Tornado (EF0)Sawyer-Tornado was produced from the same tornadic thunderstorm that was in north central Mclean County earlier. This was a seperate tornado as the one earlier in Mclean County completely lifted. The tornado remained over rangeland and impacted no structures.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindSawyer-12 acres of cut hay lined up in rows was blown completely away.
July 2001Thunderstorm WindSawyer-Cooperative observer reported large tree's down.
July 2025Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
July 2025Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
August 2023HailSawyer-no account filed
July 2022Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
July 2022Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
July 2020Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
August 2020HailSawyer-no account filed
August 2020HailSawyer-no account filed
August 2014HailSawyer-no account filed
August 2013HailSawyer-no account filed
August 2013HailSawyer-no account filed
July 2011Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
May 2007HailSawyer-no account filed
June 2004HailSawyer-no account filed
June 2002HailSawyer-no account filed
August 2001HailSawyer-no account filed
August 2001HailSawyer-no account filed
July 1999HailSawyer-no account filed
June 1995Thunderstorm WindSawyer-no account filed
July 1994HailSawyer-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ward 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
Logan6.7 miles11
Surrey11.0 miles11
South Prairie13.1 miles9
Minot16.2 miles11
Drady20.2 miles11
Ruthville23.4 miles10
Burlington23.6 miles10
Wolseth24.9 miles9

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 SawyerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q584778The 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 1031363. 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.