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Blue River, Wisconsin

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1933 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Blue River Village. It lies in ZIP code area 53518. It stands on Blue River. The Survey maps it on the Blue River quadrangle. 457 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 663 feet above sea level.

Blue River within Grant County

Population over time

2 figures

Blue River grew from 434 to 457 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
2010434
2020457+23 (+5%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 10 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

93 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 93 fires within 5 miles of Blue River between 1992 and 2020, burning about 123 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 9 were 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 burning35
Equipment and vehicle use28
Arson/incendiarism9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined7
Recreation and ceremony5
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Smoking3
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Natural1
Other causes1

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
25 September 1999Smoking1.6 acresWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
23 September 2012Debris and open burning1.0 acresWisconsin Department of Natural ResourcesGARNER LAKE FIRE
2 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named
2 August 2006Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreWisconsin Department of Natural Resourcesnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Grant County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Blue River: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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
Blue River QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Hogskin QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in Grant County

Storms near this place

21 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Blue River in 21 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 12 hail, 7 thunderstorm wind, 1 heavy rain, 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
August 2025Flash FloodBlue River$25,000Law enforcement reported water over highway 133 in Blue River with some homes being evacuated. Additionally, street flooding was reported by emergency management in Boscobel in northern Grant County.
October 2006HailBlue River$20,000no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindBlue River$18,000no account filed
March 2025Thunderstorm WindBlue River$15,000Emergency management reported uprooted trees and power issues from Fennimore to Boscobel to Muscoda.
June 1998HailBlue River$15,000no account filed
March 2017Thunderstorm WindBlue River$10,000A power pole was snapped off and a tree blown down onto an outbuilding south of Blue River.
May 1999Thunderstorm WindBlue River$10,000no account filed
June 1997Thunderstorm WindBlue River$10,000no account filed
June 2009HailBlue River$8,000no account filed
July 2017Thunderstorm WindBlue River$5,000Trees and power lines were blown down just west of Blue River.
June 2009HailBlue River$3,500no account filed
June 2009HailBlue River$2,500Hail was associated with the first storm to move through the area. In addition, around 4.5 inches of rain was measured.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindBlue River$1,000Gusty thunderstorm winds brought down a large tree limb which landed on top of a vehicle.
August 2021HailBlue River-Half dollar sized hail fell south of Blue River.
June 2009HailBlue River-no account filed
July 2009Heavy RainBlue River-no account filed
June 2009HailBlue River-no account filed
August 2003HailBlue River-no account filed
June 1998HailBlue River-no account filed
May 1998HailBlue River-no account filed
April 1998HailBlue River-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Grant 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
Hickory Grove5.9 miles10
Muscoda6.6 miles10
Evergreen Terrace7.0 miles10
Homer7.6 miles10
Boscobel8.2 miles10
Castle Rock9.9 miles10
Centerville13.9 miles10
Woodman14.2 miles10

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 Blue RiverAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1990305The 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 1561952. 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.