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Spiritwood, North Dakota

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Spiritwood Township. It lies in ZIP code area 58481. The Survey maps it on the Spiritwood quadrangle. 29 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,480 feet above sea level.

Spiritwood within Stutsman County

Population over time

2 figures

Spiritwood grew from 18 to 29 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
201018
202029+11 (+61%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 10 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

4 since 2008

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Spiritwood between 2008 and 2017, burning about 516 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
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
16 May 2008Missing data/not specified/undetermined500 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service18
19 April 2012Equipment and vehicle use10 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service70212
15 April 2017Debris and open burning1.0 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service10224
5 October 2011Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresNorth Dakota State Forest Service3

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Stutsman County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Spiritwood: 1 past producer. None of them 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Hansted PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in Stutsman County

Storms near this place

11 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Spiritwood in 11 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 2 tornado, 1 winter weather. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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
November 1997Winter WeatherSpiritwood1 killed, 1 hurt, $15,000Freezing drizzle made bridges and overpasses extremely slick. The deceased's Jeep hit an icy overpass on the Spiritwood interchange on I-94. The Jeep rolled numerous times down the embankment. The passenger was also injured in the accident.
May 2014Thunderstorm WindSpiritwood$5,000The strong winds blew over a horse shed.
June 2025Tornado (EFU)Spiritwood-This tornado formed in Stutsman County near Spiritwood, and then moved northeasterly about a mile before crossing into Barnes County where significant structure damage occurred. The tornado then moved back into Stutsman County while it was dissipating. Therefore, there will be three Storm Data entries for this tornado, two by National Weather Service-Bismarck for Stutsman County, and one by National Weather Service-Grand Forks for Barnes County. This is the first entry for when the tornado formed in Stutsman County and moved into Barnes County. Please refer to the National Weather Service-Grand Forks entry for Barnes County for exact details on the damage. While in Barnes County, the tornado was rated as EF3 with estimated winds of 155 mph, but in Stutsman County, it was rated as EFU given there was no damage within the County to evaluate as the tornado remained over open fields. During the first duration of the tornado in Stutsman County, maximum tornado width was estimated at 300 yards, while the maximum width in Barnes County was 800 yards.
June 2025Tornado (EFU)Spiritwood-This tornado formed in Stutsman County near Spiritwood, and then moved northeasterly about a mile before crossing into Barnes County where significant structure damage occurred. The tornado then moved back into Stutsman County while it was dissipating. Therefore, there will be three Storm Data entries for this tornado, two by National Weather Service-Bismarck for Stutsman County, and one by National Weather Service-Grand Forks for Barnes County. This is the last entry for when the tornado returned from Barnes County into Stutsman County. Please refer to the National Weather Service-Grand Forks entry for Barnes County for exact details on the damage. While in Barnes County, the tornado was rated as EF3 with estimated winds of 155 mph, but in Stutsman County, it was rated as EFU given there was no damage within the County to evaluate as the tornado remained over open fields. During the last duration of the tornado in Stutsman County, maximum tornado width was estimated at 50 yards, while the maximum width in Barnes County was 800 yards.
August 2015Thunderstorm WindSpiritwood-An off-duty NWS employee driving through the thunderstorm reported that the winds were significantly shaking his vehicle.
August 2001Thunderstorm WindSpiritwood-The hail producing storm also produced 2.5 inches of rain in 30 minutes.
June 2024HailSpiritwood-no account filed
May 2014HailSpiritwood-no account filed
July 2007HailSpiritwood-no account filed
August 2006HailSpiritwood-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindSpiritwood-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Stutsman 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
Johnson3.1 miles11
Bloom6.4 miles11
Reeves6.8 miles10
Clementsville7.0 miles8
Spiritwood Lake10.5 miles10
Jamestown Junction10.6 miles11
Durupt11.1 miles8
Homer11.1 miles11

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 SpiritwoodAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4137007The 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 1032217. 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.

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.