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Crestone, Colorado

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 2001. It stands in the Saguache census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81131. It lies near Burnt Gulch. The Survey maps it on the Crestone quadrangle. 141 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7,923 feet above sea level.

Research this city

Crestone within Saguache County

On record in Crestone

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 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Crestone grew from 127 to 141 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
2010127
2020141+14 (+11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 15 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

123 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 123 fires within 5 miles of Crestone between 1994 and 2020, burning about 116 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 2 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/undetermined112
Natural5
Recreation and ceremony2
Arson/incendiarism2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Debris and open burning1

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
6 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
25 September 2019Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreRio Grande National ForestWILLOW CREEK 2
24 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
13 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
10 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
9 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
5 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Saguache County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 24 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Crestone: 17 past producers, 4 prospects, 3 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Uranium. 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
Bob Cat MineVanadium, Uranium, Thorium, REEPast Producer
Concordia ClaimCopper, Gold, SilverPast Producer1901
Crestone DistrictSilver, Lead, Copper, GoldPast Producer1900, 1939
Crestone Mineral Co. ClaimsGold, Copper, Lead, SilverProspect1901
Elarton Manganese DepositManganeseProspectHausmannite, Psilomelane
Independence MineGold, Copper, SilverPast Producer1937
San Isabel Mining and Milling Co. ClaimsGold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Barium-BaritePast ProducerVein
Unnamed MineSilver, Copper, GoldOccurrenceChalcocite, Gold, Pyrite
Unnamed Pegmatite MineStone, Feldspar, Quartz, ThoriumProspectEuxenite, Monazite, Xenotime
I. Kreiner MineQuartz, Feldspar, UraniumPast ProducerFeldspar, Quartz

Every working recorded in Saguache County

Storms near this place

16 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Crestone in 16 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 7 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain, 1 lightning. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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 2003LightningCrestone1 killed, 1 hurtno account filed
September 2013Thunderstorm WindCrestone$10,000A severe wind on the southern edge of a storm knocked down around three dozen trees, and broke a few windows and did some roof damage to structures southeast of Crestone.
July 2025Debris FlowCrestone-Heavy rainfall over Medano Pass, in Great Sand Dunes National Park, triggered flash flooding and debris flows along Medano Pass Primitive Road. Sections of the road, culverts and other drainage infrastructure were washed out or covered in debris.
July 2021Flash FloodCrestone-There was a report of one house flooded and multiple houses being sandbagged near Willow Creek in the Baca Grande region of Crestone, Colorado.
August 2021Flash FloodCrestone-Scouring of gravel road surfaces, with deep trenches in some road ditches. Near by normally dry arroyo was bank full.
August 2021Flash FloodCrestone-Trained spotter reported road damage.
August 2019Heavy RainCrestone-Over one inch of rainfall fell within 70 minutes causing minor street flooding and a small creek to near bank-full.
April 2005Tornado (F0)Crestone-A funnel cloud moved onto the western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo mountains near Crestone. As the terrain intercepted the funnel cloud...it became a tornado on the mountainside for a brief time causeing some minor tree damage.
August 2021Heavy RainCrestone-no account filed
July 2018HailCrestone-no account filed
June 2015HailCrestone-no account filed
September 2013HailCrestone-no account filed
September 2013HailCrestone-no account filed
June 2010HailCrestone-no account filed
May 2007HailCrestone-no account filed
July 1998HailCrestone-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saguache 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
Cottonwood5.2 miles15
Duncan9.6 miles12
Liberty10.9 miles12
Moffat11.1 miles10
Mirage (historical)11.4 miles12
Mineral Hot Springs16.9 miles13
Villa Grove21.9 miles13
Saguache24.3 miles11

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 CrestoneAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q369487The 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 192409. 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.