Sheldon, North Dakota
12 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1895 and the latest in 1998. It stands in Sheldon City. It lies in ZIP code area 58068. The Survey maps it on the Sheldon quadrangle. 95 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,089 feet above sea level.
On record in Sheldon
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
- Mizpah Lodge Buildinglisted 2005
Population over time
2 figuresSheldon fell from 116 to 95 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 | 116 | |
| 2020 | 95 | -21 (-18%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 12 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.
- 1895 USGS Casselton quadrangle1:125000
- 1897 USGS Casselton quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Fargo quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Fargo quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Sheldon quadrangle1:24000
- 1986 USGS Casselton quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1989 USGS Fargo quadrangle1:250000
- 1998 USGS Sheldon quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
11 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 11 fires within 5 miles of Sheldon between 1999 and 2019, burning about 221 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 5 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 September 2013 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | JAMES 03TIN |
| 1 September 2013 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | North Dakota State Forest Service | VALLEY CITY LAGOON |
| 22 August 2019 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | SHELDON RAILROAD TRACKS |
| 20 August 2015 | Debris and open burning | 134 acres | Valley City Wetland Management District | GETCHELL WPA |
| 2 May 2013 | Debris and open burning | 3.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | CHEY SPITZER |
| 12 May 2013 | Debris and open burning | 3.5 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | JON WAGAR |
| 9 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 65 acres | Dakota Prairie National Grasslands | NORTH JONES |
| 26 February 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | Tewaukon National Wildlife Refuge | WILTSE WPA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
25 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Sheldon in 25 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 13 hail, 6 thunderstorm wind, 5 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2007 | Tornado (EF2) | Sheldon | $1,000,000 | The tornado cut a large gap in mature hardwood trees near the Sheyenne River and snapped several wooden power poles. Several sections of a large irrigation system were also tipped over. Peak winds were estimated at 115 mph. Some crops were damaged in Owego Township. |
| July 2007 | Tornado (EF1) | Sheldon | $250,000 | This tornado began in Cass County at 625 pm CST. The tornado yanked one aluminum high voltage power tower out of its steel footings and toppled several others. It also snapped several wooden power poles at multiple road crossings across its path. Peak winds were estimated at 105 mph. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sheldon | $100,000 | Trees were blown down at the Sheldon cemetery, damaging some gravestones. Additional crop damage occurred in Greene Township. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sheldon | $30,000 | A pole barn was blown down. |
| June 2025 | Tornado (EF0) | Sheldon | - | Tornado scar evident via high resolution satellite through farm fields. |
| July 2022 | Hail | Sheldon | - | Public report was relayed via broadcast media partner. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sheldon | - | Several large 4 to 6-inch diameter tree branches were found broken at a farmstead. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sheldon | - | Several large tree branches were broken down in shelterbelts along highway 46. |
| July 2012 | Hail | Sheldon | - | The time of the event was estimated by radar. |
| June 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Sheldon | - | A deputy reported a tornado along the Cass and Ransom county line. |
| August 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Sheldon | - | A weak tornado tracked east-southeast for about a mile before crossing into Richland County, where it continued about another 2 miles before ending 15 miles west of Walcott. The total path length was about 3 miles. The tornado tore down numerous tree branches in shelterbelts along the way. Peak wind speeds were estimated at 65 mph. |
| June 2005 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sheldon | - | Large trees were blown down all over town. One tree fell on a house. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Sheldon | - | Large branches were blown down. |
| June 2015 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| June 2001 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Flash Flood | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Sheldon | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Sheldon | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anselm | 4.0 miles | 12 | |
| Enderlin | 6.4 miles | 10 | |
| Coburn | 6.7 miles | 12 | |
| Venlo | 7.3 miles | 10 | |
| Buttzville | 9.1 miles | 10 | |
| Lisbon | 14.2 miles | 7 | |
| McLeod | 16.7 miles | 10 | |
| Wisner (historical) | 17.7 miles | 10 |
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 Sheldon | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2231424 | 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 1035145. 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.







