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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.

Buena Vista within Chaffee County

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

Every listing in Chaffee County

Population over time

2 figures

Buena 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.

YearPeople Change
20102,617
20202,855+238 (+9%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 22 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

121 since 1992

Regional 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/undetermined42
Recreation and ceremony35
Natural23
Arson/incendiarism10
Smoking6
Equipment and vehicle use3
Debris and open burning2

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
9 September 2019Naturalunder an acreFront Range District OfficeHOPP GULCH
5 September 1998Naturalunder an acrePike and San Isabel National ForestCENTRY
4 September 2002Arson/incendiarismunder an acreRoyal Gorge Field OfficeMIDLAND
4 September 2002Arson/incendiarism1.5 acresRoyal Gorge Field OfficeLOSTSPRING
4 September 2002Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresRoyal Gorge Field OfficeHOP CANYON
3 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSedgwick Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
25 September 2010Arson/incendiarismunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
22 September 1994Naturalunder an acrePike and San Isabel National Forestnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Chaffee County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 34 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Be TrueUranium, VanadiumPast Producer
Buena VistaGold, PlatinumOccurrenceStream Placer
JosephineMarble, DimensionPast Producer
Luella PegmatiteFeldspar, REE, Bismuth, Fluorine-FluoritePast Producer1946
QuakerLead, ZincPast Producer
Unidentified Monazite OccurrenceUranium, REEOccurrenceEuxenite, Monazite
UnknownClayOccurrence
Eureka MountainGold, Lead, SilverPast Producer
Mary A ClaimsGold, CopperPast Producer
Picuris Placer MineVanadiumOccurrencePlacer

Every working recorded in Chaffee County

Storms near this place

10 since 2002

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2002Flash FloodBuena Vista2 hurt, $100,000no account filed
June 2005LightningBuena Vista$50,000no account filed
July 2007Flash FloodBuena Vista$20,000Flash flooding occurred, which brought 2 to 3 feet of standing water and mud in low lying residental areas of Buena Vista.
July 2021Flash FloodBuena 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 2021Flash FloodBuena Vista-County road 304 was washed out.
July 2017Flash FloodBuena Vista-A flash flood and mud flow on US Highway 285 near Johnson Village made the road impassible for a time.
August 2004Flash FloodBuena Vista-The ongoing mudslides occurred on Cottonwood Pass road, causing a threat to motorists, campers, and nearby homeowners.
August 2004Flash FloodBuena 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 2004LightningBuena 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 2011Thunderstorm WindBuena Vista-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chaffee 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
Johnson Village2.5 miles20
Americus4.5 miles20
Nathrop (historical)7.2 miles17
Riverside7.2 miles20
Newett7.7 miles16
Centerville9.4 miles17
Princeton11.4 miles20
Futurity11.9 miles15

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 VistaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q1001793The 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.