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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.

Ortley within Roberts County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Ortley 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.

YearPeople Change
201065
202050-15 (-23%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 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

9 since 1993

Regional 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 burning4
Smoking2
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Fireworks1

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
12 September 1996Smoking1.0 acresSisseton AgencyWABED
10 July 2000Fireworksunder an acreSisseton AgencyORTLEY
9 May 1997Debris and open burning1.0 acresSisseton AgencyKEEBLE
27 April 2001Debris and open burning1.5 acresSisseton AgencyBLUDOG1
14 April 1994Misuse of fire by a minor1.0 acresSisseton AgencyDANCAMP
29 March 2001Smoking22 acresSisseton AgencyPICKLAKE
12 March 2016Missing data/not specified/undetermined50 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionANDERSON LAKE FIRE
4 October 1993Debris and open burning1.0 acresSisseton AgencyEAGLE

Every fire recorded in Roberts County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Day County PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Roberts County

Storms near this place

13 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2025Flash FloodOrtley$50,000Emergency 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 2009Flash FloodOrtley$5,000no account filed
August 2023Thunderstorm WindOrtley-A heavy wooden trailer with a water tank on it was blown approximately 150 yards across two ditches before hitting a neighbors house.
May 2022Thunderstorm WindOrtley-Trees were uprooted in Ortley by estimated 75 mph winds.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindOrtley-Sixty mph winds were estimated.
July 2018HailOrtley-no account filed
July 2018HailOrtley-no account filed
June 2012HailOrtley-no account filed
June 2012HailOrtley-no account filed
May 2011HailOrtley-no account filed
May 1998HailOrtley-no account filed
May 1996Tornado (F0)Ortley-no account filed
May 1996Tornado (F0)Ortley-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Roberts 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
Rudebusch Corner7.0 miles7
Summit8.7 miles7
Spring Grove11.9 miles7
Goodwill17.5 miles6
Wilmot18.7 miles6
Peever Flats19.1 miles12
Peever19.4 miles12
Valley View Estates22.5 miles6

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 OrtleyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2032047The 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.