Cotopaxi, Colorado
17 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Cotopaxi census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81223. It stands on Oak Creek. The Survey maps it on the Cotopaxi quadrangle. 44 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,362 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCotopaxi fell from 47 to 44 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 | 47 | |
| 2020 | 44 | -3 (-6%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 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.
- 1954 USGS Pueblo quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Pueblo quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Pueblo quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Cotopaxi quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1962 USGS Pueblo quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Pueblo quadrangle1:250000
- 1980 USGS Cotopaxi quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Canon City quadrangle1:100000
- 1989 USGS Pueblo quadrangle1:250000
- 1994 USGS Cotopaxi quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
54 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 54 fires within 5 miles of Cotopaxi between 1992 and 2020, burning about 120 acres in total. 17 started naturally. None was 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 | 26 |
| Natural | 17 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | COTOPAXI |
| 6 August 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | LONE PINE |
| 22 August 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | DEAD MAN |
| 19 August 2016 | Natural | under an acre | Deer Mountain Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 18 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fremont County | UNKNOWN |
| 14 August 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Fremont County | UNKNOWN |
| 8 July 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | BAACKDOOR |
| 7 July 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | HENTHORN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 40 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 40 workings within 5 miles of Cotopaxi: 15 past producers, 11 occurrences, 7 producers, 4 unknowns. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Uranium, Granite, Stone, Crushed/Broken, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benton Prospect | Niobium (Columbium), Tantalum, REE, Thorium | Occurrence | Allanite, Euxenite, Gadolinite, Monazite, Xenotime | |
| Bill and Bud 2 and 4 | Uranium, Vanadium, Thorium | Past Producer | Allanite, Xenotime | |
| Champion Calcite | Limestone, General | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Coaldale Gypsum Quarry and Plant | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Producer | ||
| Colorado Feldspar Pegmatite | Feldspar, REE | Past Producer | 1939 | |
| Cotopaxi | Gold, Feldspar, Lead, Zinc, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Cotopaxi District | Zinc, Copper, Lead, Gold, Silver | Past Producer | 1850, 1875, 1945 | |
| Cotopaxi Mine | Copper, Zinc, Gold, Silver, Lead, Iron, Molybdenum, Tungsten | Past Producer | 1875, 1967 | |
| Cotopaxi Pegmatite Area | Niobium (Columbium), Tantalum, REE | Occurrence | Allanite, Euxenite, Gadolinite, Xenotime | |
| Iron Dollar Gulch Deposit | Iron | Occurrence | Hematite |
Storms near this place
4 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cotopaxi in 4 storm reports between 1996 and 2010: 2 flash flood, 2 hail. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Cotopaxi | - | Water over six inches deep flowed down an arroyo and flooded US Highway 50 near Cotopaxi. |
| June 2007 | Hail | Cotopaxi | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Hail | Cotopaxi | - | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Flash Flood | Cotopaxi | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasanton | 3.2 miles | 17 | |
| Coaldale | 3.7 miles | 18 | |
| Vallie | 4.8 miles | 19 | |
| Texas Creek | 6.4 miles | 15 | |
| Hillside | 8.3 miles | 16 | |
| Echo | 9.4 miles | 15 | |
| Howard | 9.5 miles | 19 | |
| Wellsville | 14.2 miles | 19 |
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 Cotopaxi | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5175454 | 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 191769. 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.









