Chester, South Dakota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Chester Township. It lies in ZIP code area 57016. The Survey maps it on the Wentworth quadrangle. 257 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,601 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresChester fell from 261 to 257 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 | 261 | |
| 2020 | 257 | -4 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
4 surveys from 7 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.
- 1955 USGS Sioux Falls quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Sioux Falls quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Wentworth quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Sioux Falls quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
12 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of Chester between 1999 and 2015, burning about 162 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 | 8 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 July 2001 | Fireworks | 2.0 acres | Vermillion Volunteer Fire Department | NISSEN |
| 13 July 2008 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.5 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
| 10 May 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | CAVINESS |
| 1 May 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | GASPER FIRE |
| 10 April 2010 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | JOHNSON |
| 31 March 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | GASPER |
| 31 March 2000 | Equipment and vehicle use | 150 acres | Colman Volunteer Fire Department | MALVY CHRISTENSON |
| 30 March 1999 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Arlington Volunteer Fire Department | MARK MANSON |
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 Chester: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
25 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chester in 25 storm reports between 1996 and 2019: 11 hail, 9 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2002 | Hail | Chester | $50,000 | Large hail damaged vehicles, roofs, and trees. |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $20,000 | Thunderstorm winds tore the roof off a hog confinement building and blew over a semi truck. |
| July 2000 | Hail | Chester | $10,000 | Large hail caused damage to vehicles and crops, but the amount of crop damage was not known. |
| September 2019 | Flood | Chester | $5,000 | After excessive two-day rainfall during September 10-12 (record 2-day 8.52 inches 2 miles north of Chester), Skunk Creek near Chester (gage site SCCS2) reached the second highest stage on record of 0.33 feet above flood stage on September 12. Significant amounts of agricultural land were inundated. |
| October 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | $5,000 | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Lightning | Chester | $1,000 | no account filed |
| March 2019 | Flood | Chester | - | Snow melt and heavy rainfall (measured 2.01 inches 2 miles north of Chester) resulted in extensive flooding of agricultural land in the flood plain. Skunk Creek near Chester (gage site SCCS2) reached the second highest crest on record at 0.2 feet above flood stage on March 18. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Large limb was broken off a cottonwood tree. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | A large tree limb was broken off in a shelter belt. |
| July 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including a few trees blown down. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm winds caused tree damage, including up to 6 inch diameter branches blown down. |
| June 2008 | Flood | Chester | - | Heavy rain during the course of the day caused flooding of a few roads in the Chester area. |
| September 2006 | Tornado (F0) | Chester | - | A tornado that caused F1 damage in Minnehaha County crossed over a small corner of southeast Lake County before crossing into Moody County, affecting 3 counties during its 3 minute existence. No damage was reported in Lake County. |
| July 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | Thunderstorm winds blew down power lines, uprooted large trees, and caused other tree damage. The amount of damage was not known. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| April 2004 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| August 2004 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | no account filed |
| May 2002 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| August 2001 | Hail | Chester | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Chester | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brant Lake | 2.7 miles | 7 | |
| Smiths Park | 4.6 miles | 7 | |
| Peninsula Park | 5.6 miles | 6 | |
| Wentworth | 7.3 miles | 7 | |
| Franklin | 7.6 miles | 6 | |
| Rustic Acres Colony | 8.9 miles | 6 | |
| Chautauqua | 9.2 miles | 6 | |
| Madison | 12.6 miles | 9 |
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 Chester | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3709565 | 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 1254346. 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.



