Ortley, South Dakota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Ortley town. It lies in ZIP code area 57256. The Survey maps it on the Ortley quadrangle. 50 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,873 feet above sea level.
On record in Ortley
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
South Dakota Department of Transportation Bridge No. 55-030-418listed 1999- Knapp Ranchlisted 2005
Population over time
2 figuresOrtley fell from 65 to 50 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 | 65 | |
| 2020 | 50 | -15 (-23%) |
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.
- 1953 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Milbank quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Ortley quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Webster quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
9 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 9 fires within 5 miles of Ortley between 1993 and 2016, burning about 78 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 |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 September 1996 | Smoking | 1.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | WABED |
| 10 July 2000 | Fireworks | under an acre | Sisseton Agency | ORTLEY |
| 9 May 1997 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | KEEBLE |
| 27 April 2001 | Debris and open burning | 1.5 acres | Sisseton Agency | BLUDOG1 |
| 14 April 1994 | Misuse of fire by a minor | 1.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | DANCAMP |
| 29 March 2001 | Smoking | 22 acres | Sisseton Agency | PICKLAKE |
| 12 March 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 50 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | ANDERSON LAKE FIRE |
| 4 October 1993 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Sisseton Agency | EAGLE |
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 Ortley: 1 producer. All of them still produce. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day County Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
13 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ortley in 13 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 6 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 2 tornado, 2 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 | Flash Flood | Ortley | $50,000 | Emergency management reports several county and township roads under water, in addition to the number of streets under water in the city of Sisseton. Flooding would impact numerous businesses, including Lakes Gas, where about 40 propane tanks were observed floating in flood waters. Numerous cars were also inundated by these flood waters. |
| August 2009 | Flash Flood | Ortley | $5,000 | no account filed |
| August 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ortley | - | A heavy wooden trailer with a water tank on it was blown approximately 150 yards across two ditches before hitting a neighbors house. |
| May 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ortley | - | Trees were uprooted in Ortley by estimated 75 mph winds. |
| July 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Ortley | - | Sixty mph winds were estimated. |
| July 2018 | Hail | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Hail | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| June 2012 | Hail | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| May 2011 | Hail | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F0) | Ortley | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Tornado (F0) | Ortley | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rudebusch Corner | 7.0 miles | 7 | |
| Summit | 8.7 miles | 7 | |
| Spring Grove | 11.9 miles | 7 | |
| Goodwill | 17.5 miles | 6 | |
| Wilmot | 18.7 miles | 6 | |
| Peever Flats | 19.1 miles | 12 | |
| Peever | 19.4 miles | 12 | |
| Valley View Estates | 22.5 miles | 6 |
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 Ortley | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2032047 | 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 1256907. 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.



