Buena Vista, Colorado
22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1955 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Buena Vista census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81211. It lies near Hop Gulch. The Survey maps it on the Buena Vista West quadrangle. 2,855 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7,966 feet above sea level.
On record in Buena Vista
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 12 of 19 shown
J. M. Bonney Houselisted 1994
Bridge over Arkansas Riverlisted 1985
Buena Vista Ranger Stationlisted 2022
Chaffee County Courthouse and Jail Buildingslisted 1979
Comanche Drive-Inlisted 2015
William and Anna Fay Houselisted 2015
Grace Episcopal Churchlisted 1978
Head Lettuce Day-Collegiate Peaks Stampede Rodeo Groundslisted 2016
Jacobs Buildinglisted 2011
Kelley-McDonald Houselisted 2015
Maxwell Park Schoollisted 2020
McFadden Barnlisted 2022
Population over time
2 figuresBuena Vista grew from 2,617 to 2,855 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 | 2,617 | |
| 2020 | 2,855 | +238 (+9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 22 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.
- 1955 USGS Buena Vista quadrangle1:62500, 8 printings
- 1956 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Buena Vista West quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1984 USGS Gunnison quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Buena Vista West quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
121 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 121 fires within 5 miles of Buena Vista between 1992 and 2020, burning about 86 acres in total. 23 started naturally. 10 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 | 42 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 35 |
| Natural | 23 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 10 |
| Smoking | 6 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Front Range District Office | HOPP GULCH |
| 5 September 1998 | Natural | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | CENTRY |
| 4 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | MIDLAND |
| 4 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.5 acres | Royal Gorge Field Office | LOSTSPRING |
| 4 September 2002 | Arson/incendiarism | 1.0 acres | Royal Gorge Field Office | HOP CANYON |
| 3 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 25 September 2010 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 22 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 34 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 34 workings within 5 miles of Buena Vista: 18 past producers, 14 occurrences, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Silver, Feldspar. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Be True | Uranium, Vanadium | Past Producer | ||
| Buena Vista | Gold, Platinum | Occurrence | Stream Placer | |
| Josephine | Marble, Dimension | Past Producer | ||
| Luella Pegmatite | Feldspar, REE, Bismuth, Fluorine-Fluorite | Past Producer | 1946 | |
| Quaker | Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Unidentified Monazite Occurrence | Uranium, REE | Occurrence | Euxenite, Monazite | |
| Unknown | Clay | Occurrence | ||
| Eureka Mountain | Gold, Lead, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Mary A Claims | Gold, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Picuris Placer Mine | Vanadium | Occurrence | Placer |
Storms near this place
10 since 2002Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Buena Vista in 10 storm reports between 2002 and 2021: 7 flash flood, 2 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 2 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | 2 hurt, $100,000 | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Lightning | Buena Vista | $50,000 | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | $20,000 | Flash flooding occurred, which brought 2 to 3 feet of standing water and mud in low lying residental areas of Buena Vista. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | Heavy rainfall washed out County road 371, from a small drainage which flows across the road. Two cars were stuck in the mud. |
| July 2021 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | County road 304 was washed out. |
| July 2017 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | A flash flood and mud flow on US Highway 285 near Johnson Village made the road impassible for a time. |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | The ongoing mudslides occurred on Cottonwood Pass road, causing a threat to motorists, campers, and nearby homeowners. |
| August 2004 | Flash Flood | Buena Vista | - | In total, five mudslides occurred on Cottonwood Pass Road (CR 306) about one mile west of the hot springs pool. The mud on the road ranged from two to 14 feet deep. Cottonwood Hot Springs and several residences needed to be evacuated as a precaution. |
| July 2004 | Lightning | Buena Vista | - | While no humans were affected, a pig was struck by lightning and killed. The pig was a prized swine, scheduled to be entered in the 4-H competition at the Chaffee County Fair. |
| June 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Buena Vista | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Johnson Village | 2.5 miles | 20 | |
| Americus | 4.5 miles | 20 | |
| Nathrop (historical) | 7.2 miles | 17 | |
| Riverside | 7.2 miles | 20 | |
| Newett | 7.7 miles | 16 | |
| Centerville | 9.4 miles | 17 | |
| Princeton | 11.4 miles | 20 | |
| Futurity | 11.9 miles | 15 |
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 Buena Vista | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q1001793 | 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 189268. 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.







