Voltaire, North Dakota
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1948 and the latest in 1980. It stands in Voltaire City. It lies in ZIP code area 58792. It stands on Blacktail Coulee. The Survey maps it on the Voltaire quadrangle. 46 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,588 feet above sea level.
On record in Voltaire
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
Westgaard Bridgelisted 1997
Population over time
2 figuresVoltaire grew from 40 to 46 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 | 40 | |
| 2020 | 46 | +6 (+15%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 16 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.
- 1948 USGS Velva quadrangle1:62500
- 1948 USGS Voltaire quadrangle1:24000, 7 printings
- 1949 USGS Voltaire quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1951 USGS Velva quadrangle1:62500
- 1954 USGS Minot quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Minot quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Velva quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
5 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 5 fires within 5 miles of Voltaire between 2002 and 2019, burning about 39 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 August 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 82120182 |
| 13 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Turtle Mountain Agency | WARM WIND |
| 5 July 2002 | Fireworks | 1.5 acres | Turtle Mountain Agency | MARY |
| 29 April 2008 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 16 acres | J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge | JOHNSON WPA |
| 13 April 2019 | Debris and open burning | 20 acres | North Dakota State Forest Service | 2019-7 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Voltaire: 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Velva Sand & Gravel | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
14 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Voltaire in 14 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 6 hail, 4 tornado, 3 thunderstorm wind, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Voltaire | $350,000 | Extensive damage occurred to the grain elevator at Voltaire. Two large grain bins were blown completely over with other bins damaged. In addition, the grain leg connecting all the bins from the main terminal was blown off. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Voltaire | $150,000 | Large grain bins were damaged with one being knocked over. This was in an area which had damaging wind gusts earlier in the summer. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Voltaire | $40,000 | The strong thunderstorm winds overturned a semi-trailer. |
| August 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Voltaire | - | This tornado, a landspout, touched down in an open field south-southeast of Voltaire and impacted no structures. There was no damage to evaluate and so by National Weather Service policy the tornado is rated EF Unknown. This was the first of two landspout tornadoes in the Voltaire area of McHenry County this day, 12 minutes apart, from two different thunderstorms. |
| August 2023 | Tornado (EFU) | Voltaire | - | This tornado, a landspout, touched down in an open field southwest of Voltaire and impacted no structures. There was no damage to evaluate and so by National Weather Service policy the tornado is rated EF Unknown. This was the second of two landspout tornadoes in the Voltaire area of McHenry County this day, 12 minutes apart, from two different thunderstorms. |
| August 2008 | Tornado (EF0) | Voltaire | - | The public reported this tornado as being briefly on the ground. There was no damage and no reports of structures being impacted. |
| June 2002 | Flash Flood | Voltaire | - | Rainfall reports of 6 inches fell with the storm with several inches of standing water in streets and yards. |
| August 1999 | Tornado (F0) | Voltaire | - | Tornado briefly on ground before lifting back into the clouds. |
| September 2024 | Hail | Voltaire | - | no account filed |
| July 2015 | Hail | Voltaire | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Voltaire | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Voltaire | - | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Hail | Voltaire | - | no account filed |
| June 2004 | Hail | Voltaire | - | 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 Voltaire | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q939195 | 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 1032653. 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.






