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.
Population over time
2 figuresBlue 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 434 | |
| 2020 | 457 | +23 (+5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 10 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.
- 1933 USGS Boscobel quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1961 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1967 USGS Boscobel quadrangle1:62500
- 1976 USGS La Crosse quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Blue River quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Richland Center quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
93 since 1992Regional 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 burning | 35 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 28 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 5 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 1999 | Smoking | 1.6 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 23 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | GARNER LAKE FIRE |
| 2 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
| 2 August 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue River Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Hogskin Quarry | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
21 since 1997Regional 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2025 | Flash Flood | Blue River | $25,000 | Law 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 2006 | Hail | Blue River | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $18,000 | no account filed |
| March 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $15,000 | Emergency management reported uprooted trees and power issues from Fennimore to Boscobel to Muscoda. |
| June 1998 | Hail | Blue River | $15,000 | no account filed |
| March 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $10,000 | A power pole was snapped off and a tree blown down onto an outbuilding south of Blue River. |
| May 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Blue River | $8,000 | no account filed |
| July 2017 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $5,000 | Trees and power lines were blown down just west of Blue River. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Blue River | $3,500 | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Blue River | $2,500 | Hail was associated with the first storm to move through the area. In addition, around 4.5 inches of rain was measured. |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Blue River | $1,000 | Gusty thunderstorm winds brought down a large tree limb which landed on top of a vehicle. |
| August 2021 | Hail | Blue River | - | Half dollar sized hail fell south of Blue River. |
| June 2009 | Hail | Blue River | - | no account filed |
| July 2009 | Heavy Rain | Blue River | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Blue River | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Blue River | - | no account filed |
| June 1998 | Hail | Blue River | - | no account filed |
| May 1998 | Hail | Blue River | - | no account filed |
| April 1998 | Hail | Blue River | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hickory Grove | 5.9 miles | 10 | |
| Muscoda | 6.6 miles | 10 | |
| Evergreen Terrace | 7.0 miles | 10 | |
| Homer | 7.6 miles | 10 | |
| Boscobel | 8.2 miles | 10 | |
| Castle Rock | 9.9 miles | 10 | |
| Centerville | 13.9 miles | 10 | |
| Woodman | 14.2 miles | 10 |
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 River | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1990305 | 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 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.







