Stanley, North Dakota
5 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1969. It stands in Stanley City. It lies in ZIP code area 58784. The Survey maps it on the Stanley quadrangle. 2,321 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,244 feet above sea level.
On record in Stanley
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 2 records
Great Northern Railway Underpasslisted 1997
Mountrail County Courthouselisted 1978
Population over time
2 figuresStanley grew from 1,458 to 2,321 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 | 1,458 | |
| 2020 | 2,321 | +863 (+59%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
3 surveys from 5 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.
- 1953 USGS Williston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Williston quadrangle1:250000
- 1969 USGS Stanley quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
13 since 2005Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Stanley between 2005 and 2019, burning about 336 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 2.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | not named |
| 10 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | not named |
| 6 August 2018 | Natural | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 84TH BALE |
| 21 August 2018 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | REC TRANSFORMER 1 |
| 19 July 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 5.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | not named |
| 12 June 2019 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | CALL 29 |
| 4 May 2017 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | ENBRIDGE FIRE |
| 19 May 2018 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | BARSTAD 1 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
59 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Stanley in 59 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 31 hail, 22 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain, 1 lightning. 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 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $40,000 | Spotter reports several trees down in the city of Stanley. Largest tree was approximately 16 inches in diameter. Two flag poles also broken off. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $35,000 | Severe thunderstorm winds damaged the rafters on a machine storage building. The building was under construction with only the frame of the building finished. Time of the event was based on radar. |
| July 2009 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $25,000 | Trained weather spotters reported damage from the severe thunderstorm wind gusts. A small metal building was reported blown into a ditch, numerous tree branches were blown down, and one window was reported blown out of a trailer home. |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $25,000 | Carport damaged. Also, debris struck a nearby building and damaged the upper part near the roof. Vehicle damage reported as well. The peak severe wind gust episode at 822 PM CST appeared to be caused by the thunderstorm collapsing. |
| July 1996 | Lightning | Stanley | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $8,000 | The strong winds destroyed a baseball dugout and snapped a ten inch in diameter tree. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $5,000 | A tree that was two and one half feet in diameter, and 30 feet tall, was snapped. |
| June 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | $3,000 | Six inch diameter branches from a one-hundred year old tree were broken down. |
| July 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | Winds were estimated at over 60 miles per hour. |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | Winds were estimated by the North Dakota Atmospheric Resource Board. |
| July 2011 | Heavy Rain | Stanley | - | A rainfall total of 2.01 inches was reported. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | Strong winds were reported. |
| June 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | Pea to dime size hail was also reported in addition to the strong winds. |
| June 2008 | Hail | Stanley | - | Hail ranged from dime to quarter size. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Stanley | - | Hail lasted 5 minutes with no damage reported. |
| June 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Stanley | - | Weak or cold air funnel. No thunderstorm was occurring. |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stanley | - | Wind gust to 40 mph and 1 inch rainfall accompanied the storm. |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stanley | - | Hail piling up in drifts. |
| June 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | Radio antenna blown over. |
| June 2001 | Heavy Rain | Stanley | - | Reports of 4.75 inches of rain fell in a 12 hour period of time resulting in culverts on the back roads washing out. |
| July 2001 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | Winds measured at the radar site in Stanley ND operated by an employee of the Atmospheric Resource board. |
| July 2001 | Hail | Stanley | - | Very heavy rain with the storm. |
| June 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Stanley | - | in open field crossing highway 2. no reported damage. |
| July 1998 | Flash Flood | Stanley | - | Heavy rain made streets impassable in Stanley. reports of 3 to 4 inches of rain fell. |
| August 2025 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| September 2021 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2016 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2013 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2010 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2008 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2008 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 1999 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Hail | Stanley | - | no account filed |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Stanley | - | 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.
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 Stanley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1999227 | 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 1032284. 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.


