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Rensselaer Falls, New York

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Canton town. It lies in ZIP code area 13680. It stands on Indian Creek. The Survey maps it on the Rensselaer Falls quadrangle. 361 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 328 feet above sea level.

Rensselaer Falls within St. Lawrence County

Then and now

1904 to 1985

The same ground, surveyed 81 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Rensselaer Falls, surveyed 1985
Topographic sheet of Rensselaer Falls, surveyed 1904

Compare 1904 against another survey:

On record in Rensselaer Falls

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

Population over time

2 figures

Rensselaer Falls grew from 332 to 361 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
2010332
2020361+29 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 14 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

58 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 58 fires within 5 miles of Rensselaer Falls between 2002 and 2020, burning about 34 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 8 were 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/undetermined40
Arson/incendiarism8
Smoking5
Natural2
Debris and open burning2
Equipment and vehicle use1

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
8 September 2003Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
15 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
21 August 2012Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
12 August 2017Naturalunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
9 July 2018Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.2 acresFire Department of New YorkN/A
8 July 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named
7 July 2019Arson/incendiarismunder an acreFire Department of New YorkN/A
25 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFire Department of New Yorknot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in St. Lawrence County

Storms near this place

4 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rensselaer Falls in 4 storm reports between 1994 and 2024: 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2024Flash FloodRensselaer Falls$3,000,000Emergency Mgmt. reported widespread flash flooding across the area with numerous roads closed or washed out due to severe flash flooding. This included, but was not limited to US Route 11 in numerous locations. Some homes and bridges were also damaged with a few swift water rescues noted. The hardest hit areas were around Canton, Colton, Potsdam and Stockholm.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindRensselaer Falls$5,000Several trees down on utility lines due to thunderstorm winds.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindRensselaer Falls$5,000A combination of a hot and humid airmass and a cold front moving into the northern Great Lakes resulted in severe thunderstorms across parts of St. Lawrence County during the afternoon of July 21st. Thunderstorm winds downed trees and powerlines in the towns of Rensselaer Falls and Morley and golf ball-size hail fell at Black Lake. In addition wind gusts were measured up to 75 knots at Ogdensburg Airport. Lightning struck the Ames Department Store in Ogdensburg resulting in damage to the store sign and air conditioning system.
July 1994Thunderstorm WindRensselaer Falls$5,000A combination of a hot and humid airmass and a cold front moving into the northern Great Lakes resulted in severe thunderstorms across parts of St. Lawrence County during the afternoon of July 21st. Thunderstorm winds downed trees and powerlines in the towns of Rensselaer Falls and Morley and golf ball-size hail fell at Black Lake. In addition wind gusts were measured up to 75 knots at Ogdensburg Airport. Lightning struck the Ames Department Store in Ogdensburg resulting in damage to the store sign and air conditioning system.

Every storm recorded in St. Lawrence 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
Heuvelton5.0 miles15
Coopers Falls5.2 miles14
Flackville5.5 miles15
Eddy5.7 miles15
De Kalb Junction6.5 miles14
De Kalb6.5 miles14
De Peyster6.7 miles15
East De Kalb7.6 miles14

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 Rensselaer FallsAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3452774The 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 976882. 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.