Tolstoy, South Dakota
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the East Potter unorganized territory. It lies in ZIP code area 57475. The Survey maps it on the Tolstoy quadrangle. 35 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,939 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresTolstoy fell from 36 to 35 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 | 36 | |
| 2020 | 35 | -1 (-3%) |
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.
- 1954 USGS Aberdeen quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Aberdeen quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS Tolstoy quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Gettysburg quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
4 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Tolstoy between 1999 and 2018, burning about 2,002 acres in total. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 August 2006 | Natural | under an acre | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
| 13 May 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | STOTZ FIRE |
| 26 March 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2,000 acres | Kadoka Volunteer Fire Department | YELLOW BEAR |
| 18 February 2005 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | South Dakota Wildland Fire Suppression | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
29 since 2001Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Tolstoy in 29 storm reports between 2001 and 2025: 15 hail, 12 thunderstorm wind, 1 lightning, 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | Winds gusted to nearly eighty mph behind an exiting thunderstorm which did cause structural damage to a few outbuildings. |
| July 2015 | Flash Flood | Tolstoy | - | Heavy rains of over three inches flooded some area fields along with a few roads. |
| August 2011 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | Very large hail up to three inches in diameter caused some vehicle and siding damage in Tolstoy. |
| June 2001 | Lightning | Tolstoy | - | Lightning struck the Tolstoy Wesleyan Church starting a fire in the attic. The fire spread and destroyed the church. Everyone in the church escaped without injury. |
| August 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| April 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| May 2022 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| May 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| June 2021 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| June 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2011 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| August 2011 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| August 2007 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| June 2002 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Tolstoy | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hoven | 9.0 miles | 7 | |
| Lebanon | 12.6 miles | 7 | |
| Gettysburg | 22.6 miles | 7 | |
| Gorman | 31.2 miles | 6 | |
| Forest City | 39.0 miles | 7 |
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 Tolstoy | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2449700 | 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 1258575. 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.



