Orchard Mesa, Colorado
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1956 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the Grand Junction census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81503. It stands on Indian Wash. The Survey maps it on the Grand Junction quadrangle. 6,688 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,649 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresOrchard Mesa fell from 6,836 to 6,688 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 | 6,836 | |
| 2020 | 6,688 | -148 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 14 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 Grand Junction quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1962 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Grand Junction quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
935 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 935 fires within 5 miles of Orchard Mesa between 1992 and 2020, burning about 13,755 acres in total. 23 started naturally. 4 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/undetermined | 801 |
| Smoking | 35 |
| Natural | 23 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 22 |
| Fireworks | 18 |
| Debris and open burning | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 12 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 2 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grand Junction Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 9 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grand Junction Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 9 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | GRAND JUNCTION |
| 8 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grand Junction Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 7 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | N/A |
| 7 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grand Junction Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 7 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Grand Junction Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 6 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | N/A |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 58 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 58 workings within 5 miles of Orchard Mesa: 36 unknowns, 12 occurrences, 7 producers, 2 past producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Uranium, Gypsum-Anhydrite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colo Copper Properties | Copper | Producer | ||
| Lucius Pitkin Inc | Uranium, Vanadium | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Barium-Barite | Occurrence | Hydrothermal Vein | |
| Unknown | Stone, Dimension | Occurrence | Metamorphic | |
| Unnamed | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Fireside Enterprises | Limestone, Dimension | Occurrence | ||
| Himes Drilling | Limestone, Dimension | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Occurrence | ||
| Unknown | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Occurrence | Sedimentary | |
| Unknown | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
12 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orchard Mesa in 12 storm reports between 1999 and 2025: 4 thunderstorm wind, 2 heavy rain, 2 flash flood, 1 flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | Flash Flood | Orchard Mesa | $20,000 | Thunderstorms developed over the Redlands area of Grand Junction late in the afternoon of September 4th, and remained there for 2-3 hours. Impacts began to be noticed around 6:45 PM MDT, with an LSR in the area of 1 ESE Redlands indicating Water out of the banks of nearby wash and running over Redlands Parkway in several areas. Approximately half an hour later, another LSR indicated that water running over the roadway in many areas along South Camp Road in the Redlands (Redlands 1SSE). Debris was also reported as having to be removed from Monument Road (Redlands 3SSE). In addition to the LSR'd events, properties were flooded, normally dry washes were overfilled, and water and debris inundated several roadways in the area. Additionally, social media reports indicated flooding along No Thoroughfare Canyon, Monument Road, and in the Devil's Kitchen area of Colorado National Monument. Once the rain stopped and the storms dissipated, a local spotter provided the total precipitation from this storm, which was a 2.33 inches. |
| July 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Mesa | $3,000 | no account filed |
| September 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Mesa | - | A large tree estimated to be 8 to 10 inches in diameter fell in the Grand Junction city cemetery as a result of thunderstorm winds. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Mesa | - | A National Weather Service employee reported a downed power line across the road in Orchard Mesa, caused by wind gusts estimated to be around 64 mph. Additionally, a trained spotter nearby had a moderate to large tree uprooted and blown down. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orchard Mesa | - | Wind gusts estimated to be in the 50 to 60 mph range uprooted a medium to large size tree in Orchard Mesa. The tree fell on a nearby camper. |
| July 2016 | Heavy Rain | Orchard Mesa | - | Showers and thunderstorms produced brief heavy rainfall across portions of Mesa County, including 0.40 inches of rain within 50 minutes measured near Orchard Mesa. |
| July 2012 | Flash Flood | Orchard Mesa | - | Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall produced flooding in Unaweep Canyon closing Highway 141 between mile markers 140 and 141 due to water over the roadway. |
| June 2006 | Funnel Cloud | Orchard Mesa | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Tornado (F0) | Orchard Mesa | - | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Hail | Orchard Mesa | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Flood | Orchard Mesa | - | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Heavy Rain | Orchard Mesa | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Junction | 1.4 miles | 14 | |
| Rosevale | 1.9 miles | 14 | |
| Durham | 4.0 miles | 14 | |
| Fruitvale | 4.0 miles | 12 | |
| Johnsons Corner | 4.5 miles | 12 | |
| Pear Park | 4.7 miles | 12 | |
| Highland Park | 5.0 miles | 12 | |
| Redlands | 5.1 miles | 17 |
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 Orchard Mesa | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2416594 | 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 174585. 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.







