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Fairburn, South Dakota

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1894 and the latest in 1977. It stands in the East Custer unorganized territory. It lies in ZIP code area 57738. The Survey maps it on the Fairburn quadrangle. 60 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,301 feet above sea level.

Fairburn within Custer County

On record in Fairburn

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

Fairburn fell from 85 to 60 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
201085
202060-25 (-29%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 16 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

26 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 26 fires within 5 miles of Fairburn between 2000 and 2020, burning about 1,138 acres in total. 8 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
Natural8
Missing data/not specified/undetermined8
Equipment and vehicle use6
Debris and open burning2
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Railroad operations and maintenance1

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
10 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined250 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
7 August 2005Naturalunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
4 August 2012Naturalunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSAGE
30 August 2005Natural1.3 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
30 August 2005Natural1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
3 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression55
29 August 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined500 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionHERMOSA FIRE
18 August 2010Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionDOWNEN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Custer County

Storms near this place

60 of 149 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fairburn in 149 storm reports between 1993 and 2025: 96 hail, 51 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado, 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
June 1998Thunderstorm WindFairburn$50,000A vacant mobile home was destroyed, a roof was torn off a shed and two twelve inch diameter trees were blown down.
July 2013Thunderstorm WindFairburn$50,000no account filed
June 2013HailFairburn$25,000Softball size hail damaged property.
July 2013HailFairburn$15,000no account filed
July 2013HailFairburn$10,000no account filed
July 2013Thunderstorm WindFairburn$5,000The combination of hail and wind caused minor damage.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindFairburn$5,000The combination of hail and wind caused minor damage.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindFairburn$5,000The combination of hail and wind broke windows on the west side of a house. A roof was blown off a shed.
June 2013HailFairburn$5,000no account filed
July 2013HailFairburn$3,000no account filed
June 2009HailFairburn$3,000no account filed
August 2012HailFairburn$2,000Hail driven by 52 mph wind gusts broke windows.
May 1993Tornado (F0)Fairburn$500A tractor-trailer was blown over near the junction of Highway 79 and Fairburn Road.
June 2025HailFairburn-Trained spotter reported hail size, estimated.
July 2025HailFairburn-Trained spotter reported quarter size hail.
July 2025HailFairburn-Public submitted report.
May 2024HailFairburn-Hail covered the ground. The largest hail was ping pong ball size, with lots of penny to nickel sized hail.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindFairburn-The spotter estimated wind gusts at 60 mph.
July 2024HailFairburn-Hail damage to home.
April 2022HailFairburn-Hail up to quarter size fell for most of 40 minutes.
August 2020Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts to 60 mph accompanied the storm.
June 2019HailFairburn-Hail to ping-pong ball size fell for about 30 minutes.
June 2019HailFairburn-Golf ball sized hail fell for a half an hour at the Custer State Park east entrance and airport.
August 2018Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2018Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Small outbuildings were blown down by the wind.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 70 mph.
May 2018Thunderstorm WindFairburn-A camper was blown over on its side.
July 2018Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2017HailFairburn-The spotter also estimated 40-50 mph wind gusts.
August 2017HailFairburn-A second wave of hail fell for ten minutes.
July 2015HailFairburn-Quarter sized hail was reported at the Custer State Park Game Lodge.
July 2015HailFairburn-The ground was covered with two inches of hail and a wind gust of 57 mph was recorded.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
July 2014Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
July 2013HailFairburn-Two inch diameter hail covered the ground.
August 2013Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2013Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts estimated near 70 mph bent small trees.
July 2013Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2013Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
July 2013HailFairburn-Reported at the Custer State Park Wildlife Visitors Center.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2012Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts reached 60 mph at the Wildlife Visitors Center in Custer State Park.
October 2011Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
July 2011Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
August 2011HailFairburn-Strong wind gusts were also reported.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts estimated around 60 mph.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated at 60 mph.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Thunderstorm wind gusts bent small trees and blew over a large picnic table.
July 2009Thunderstorm WindFairburn-Wind gusts were estimated around 60 mph.
August 2002Thunderstorm WindFairburn-A large tree limb was downed by thunderstorm winds.
June 1999Flash FloodFairburn-Water along French and Grace Coolidge Creeks rose rapidly after 3 to 4 inches of rain in less then an hour. Some vehicles in the Hermosa area had water up to the doors because local drainage systems could not keep up with the water.
August 2024HailFairburn-no account filed
August 2024HailFairburn-no account filed
May 2024HailFairburn-no account filed
September 2024Thunderstorm WindFairburn-no account filed
August 2024HailFairburn-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Custer 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
Hermosa10.7 miles16
State Game Lodge10.8 miles22
Spokane13.9 miles22
Buffalo Gap14.5 miles16
Blue Bell14.5 miles18
Cold Spring II (historical)16.2 miles18
Nihart20.2 miles16
Folsom20.5 miles8

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 FairburnAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2734124The 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 1261656. 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.