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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.

Tolstoy within Potter County

Population over time

2 figures

Tolstoy 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.

YearPeople Change
201036
202035-1 (-3%)

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

4 since 1999

Regional 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 use2
Natural1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined1

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 August 2006Naturalunder an acreSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named
13 May 2018Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire SuppressionSTOTZ FIRE
26 March 1999Missing data/not specified/undetermined2,000 acresKadoka Volunteer Fire DepartmentYELLOW BEAR
18 February 2005Equipment and vehicle use1.0 acresSouth Dakota Wildland Fire Suppressionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Potter County

Storms near this place

29 since 2001

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
June 2015Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-Winds gusted to nearly eighty mph behind an exiting thunderstorm which did cause structural damage to a few outbuildings.
July 2015Flash FloodTolstoy-Heavy rains of over three inches flooded some area fields along with a few roads.
August 2011HailTolstoy-Very large hail up to three inches in diameter caused some vehicle and siding damage in Tolstoy.
June 2001LightningTolstoy-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 2025Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
June 2024Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
July 2024Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
April 2024Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
June 2022Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
May 2022HailTolstoy-no account filed
May 2021Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
June 2021HailTolstoy-no account filed
July 2020Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
July 2019Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
June 2016Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
June 2015Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
July 2013Thunderstorm WindTolstoy-no account filed
August 2011HailTolstoy-no account filed
July 2011HailTolstoy-no account filed
July 2011HailTolstoy-no account filed
August 2011HailTolstoy-no account filed
August 2007HailTolstoy-no account filed
August 2006HailTolstoy-no account filed
August 2006HailTolstoy-no account filed
September 2005HailTolstoy-no account filed
July 2003HailTolstoy-no account filed
June 2002HailTolstoy-no account filed
July 2001HailTolstoy-no account filed
July 2001HailTolstoy-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Potter 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
Hoven9.0 miles7
Lebanon12.6 miles7
Gettysburg22.6 miles7
Gorman31.2 miles6
Forest City39.0 miles7

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 TolstoyAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2449700The 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.