Dolores, Colorado
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1956 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Dolores census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81323. It lies near Lost Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Dolores West quadrangle. 885 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,936 feet above sea level.
On record in Dolores
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 3 records
Lebanon Schoollisted 1996
Southern Hotellisted 1989- Exon & Rush Meat Market and Mercantilelisted 2024
Population over time
2 figuresDolores fell from 936 to 885 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 | 936 | |
| 2020 | 885 | -51 (-5%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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.
- 1956 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Dolores West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1966 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:250000
- 1982 USGS Cortez quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
118 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 118 fires within 5 miles of Dolores between 1992 and 2020, burning about 532 acres in total. 39 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 46 |
| Natural | 39 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 17 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2006 | Natural | under an acre | Tres Rios Field Office | LIGHTNER |
| 3 September 2004 | Natural | under an acre | Mesa Verde National Park | JOHNY CASH |
| 29 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | RACCOON |
| 27 September 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | HUMAN |
| 7 August 2005 | Natural | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | SAGEHEN |
| 5 August 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | HIGHSCHOOL |
| 30 August 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | 527 |
| 26 August 2008 | Natural | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | OMEGA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 19 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Dolores: 8 unknowns, 5 occurrences, 3 prospects, 2 past producers. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Fire Clay (Refractory), 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 | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canon 7 | Uranium, Vanadium | Past Producer | ||
| Dolores Mine | Coal, Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Occurrence | ||
| Unknown | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Occurrence | ||
| Unk | Clay | Prospect | ||
| Unk | Clay | Prospect | ||
| Unknown | Clay | Unknown | ||
| Gravel Pits | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Prospect | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
11 since 1997Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dolores in 11 storm reports between 1997 and 2023: 4 wildfire, 2 thunderstorm wind, 2 hail, 1 funnel cloud. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2023 | Flood | Dolores | $50,000 | Rapid snowmelt from the Dolores River led to various drainages breaching their banks. This resulted in flooded downtown residential buildings in the town of Dolores. The water also flooded streets, some yards, and school playgrounds. Flood waters did not recede for several days. |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dolores | $20,000 | no account filed |
| June 2020 | Hail | Dolores | - | A severe thunderstorm produced large hail measured to be the size of quarters west-northwest of Dolores. |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Dolores | - | Heavy rain from thunderstorms produced minor flooding across Colorado Highway 184 and 27.8 road. Nearby CoCoRaHS rainfall reports ranged from 0.70 to 0.90 of an inch. |
| May 2015 | Funnel Cloud | Dolores | - | A persistent funnel cloud was seen just northeast of Cortez and traveled northeast about four miles before it dissipated over the Summit Ridge area. The funnel clouds was photographed and reported by many people. |
| May 2015 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dolores | - | An intense thunderstorm produced strong outflow winds which destroyed a farm shed at a location between Mancos and Cortez. |
| October 2010 | Hail | Dolores | - | Hail the size of ping pong balls pelted the area near the Anasazi Heritage Center. |
| August 2001 | Wildfire | Dolores | - | no account filed |
| October 2001 | Wildfire | Dolores | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Wildfire | Dolores | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Wildfire | Dolores | - | 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.
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 Dolores | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q923230 | 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 202607. 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.






