Ophir, Colorado
28 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Telluride census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81426. It stands on Waterfall Creek. The Survey maps it on the Ophir quadrangle. 197 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 9,695 feet above sea level.
On record in Ophir
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
3 figuresOphir grew from 113 to 197 between 2000 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 113 | |
| 2010 | 159 | +46 (+41%) |
| 2020 | 197 | +38 (+24%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
11 surveys from 28 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.
- 1897 USGS Telluride quadrangle1:62500
- 1904 USGS Telluride quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1945 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Ophir quadrangle1:24000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Telluride quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1961 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000
- 1963 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1982 USGS Silverton quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
25 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 25 fires within 5 miles of Ophir between 1993 and 2020, burning about 829 acres in total. 9 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Smoking | 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 1993 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | not named |
| 4 August 2017 | Natural | under an acre | Telluride Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 30 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Miguel County | HIDDEN LAKE |
| 24 August 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | PROSPECT BASIN |
| 24 August 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | LIFT 6 |
| 23 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Telluride Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 2 August 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | HOPE |
| 14 August 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | SWAMP CANYON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 175 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 175 workings within 5 miles of Ophir: 86 past producers, 62 unknowns, 19 occurrences, 8 producers. 8 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Zinc. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alta Mine | Gold, Lead, Copper, Silver, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Atlanta Tunnel | Gold, Lead, Thorium, Zinc, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Black Hawk Tunnel | Gold, Silver, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Black Jack Lode, Ruth | Silver, Molybdenum | Occurrence | Molybdenite | |
| Carbonero Mine | Lead, Zinc, Copper, Gold, Silver | Producer | Sphalerite | |
| Colorado | Gold, Silver, Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Crown Point Group Mill | Gold, Copper, Silver | Unknown | ||
| Double Eagle | Gold, Thorium, Copper, Lead, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Emma,Oregon and Galena | Lead, Zinc, Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Gold Run Dump | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
4 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ophir in 4 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 2 flash flood, 2 debris flow. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2025 | Debris Flow | Ophir | - | Heavy rain resulted in a rockslide on Highway 45 at mile marker 64.5, about 1 mile north of the Ophir turns between 0900 and 0930 MST. A boulder the size of a small sedan fell on Highway 145, blocking the road. Lanes were reopened by 1030 MST. |
| July 2013 | Debris Flow | Ophir | - | Heavy rainfall resulted in a debris flow which closed Highway 145 south of Telluride for several hours. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Ophir | - | A flash flood deposited mud up to 6 feet deep covering a 100 foot section of TR Road 630, the main road to Ophir. The road was closed for about 8 hours as heavy equipment was used to remove the mud and other debris from the road. |
| July 2000 | Flash Flood | Ophir | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ophir Loop | 1.9 miles | 28 | |
| Alta (historical) | 2.3 miles | 29 | |
| Ames | 2.7 miles | 29 | |
| Mountain Village | 5.3 miles | 29 | |
| Telluride | 5.7 miles | 29 | |
| Liberty Bell | 5.7 miles | 29 | |
| Pandora | 5.8 miles | 29 | |
| Ilium | 6.1 miles | 27 |
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 Ophir | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2086617 | 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 187505. 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.











