Mesa Verde, California
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1942 and the latest in 1986. It stands in the Chuckwalla Valley census division. It lies in ZIP code area 92225. It lies near Black Rock. The Survey maps it on the Ripley quadrangle. 766 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 390 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1942 to 1986The same ground, surveyed 44 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Population over time
2 figuresMesa Verde fell from 1,023 to 766 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 | 1,023 | |
| 2020 | 766 | -257 (-25%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 17 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.
- 1942 USGS Blythe quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1952 USGS Ripley quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000
- 1955 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1963 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Salton Sea quadrangle1:250000
- 1986 USGS Blythe quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
119 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 119 fires within 5 miles of Mesa Verde between 1992 and 2019, burning about 47 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 6 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 63 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 25 |
| Debris and open burning | 10 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 6 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 September 2006 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Riverside Unit | LOCAL |
| 20 September 2001 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | California Desert District | CHAFFIN |
| 2 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | BLYTHE |
| 2 September 2002 | Natural | under an acre | California Desert District | LOCAL FIRE MACDONAL |
| 14 September 2007 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | California Desert District | UNNAMED FIRE 2727 |
| 11 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Riverside Unit | ORANGE DR / NICHOLS RD |
| 9 August 2018 | Natural | 6.2 acres | California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection | NEIGHBOURS |
| 6 August 2013 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Riverside Unit | 20TH AV / KEIM BL |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
8 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 8 workings within 5 miles of Mesa Verde: 3 past producers, 3 occurrences, 1 producer, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium, Copper. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butte Mine | Gold, Silver, Copper | Occurrence | ||
| Continental Mining & Develop. Co. | Copper | Occurrence | ||
| Nichols Warm Spring | Geothermal | Producer | ||
| American Flag Mine | Gold | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Big Maria Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Lucky Day | Uranium | Occurrence | ||
| Uranium Prospect | Uranium | Unknown |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miller Farms | 6.3 miles | 21 | |
| Ripley | 6.8 miles | 17 | |
| Blythe | 7.1 miles | 21 | |
| Mesaville | 7.5 miles | 20 | |
| Rannells (historical) | 8.1 miles | 24 | |
| East Blythe | 8.3 miles | 21 | |
| Tosco (historical) | 9.1 miles | 18 | |
| Inca | 13.6 miles | 20 |
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 Mesa Verde | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q6821095 | 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 1661106. 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.







