Poncha Springs, Colorado
19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1956 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Salida census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81242. It stands on Poncha Creek. The Survey maps it on the Salida West quadrangle. 925 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 7,464 feet above sea level.
On record in Poncha Springs
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
Poncha Springs Schoolhouselisted 1990- Hutchinson Ranchlisted 1973
Population over time
2 figuresPoncha Springs grew from 737 to 925 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 | 737 | |
| 2020 | 925 | +188 (+26%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 19 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 Montrose quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Poncha Springs quadrangle1:62500, 6 printings
- 1959 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1968 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Salida West quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1984 USGS Gunnison quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1994 USGS Salida West quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
110 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 110 fires within 5 miles of Poncha Springs between 1992 and 2020, burning about 43 acres in total. 18 started naturally. 3 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 | 70 |
| Natural | 18 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 8 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Front Range District Office | PASS CREEK |
| 22 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Salida Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 2 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | N/A |
| 2 September 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Arkansas Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 19 September 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
| 18 September 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Royal Gorge Field Office | BLANK |
| 1 September 1996 | Natural | under an acre | Pike and San Isabel National Forest | TWIN FIR |
| 8 August 2014 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Sedgwick Volunteer Fire Department | UNKNOWN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 38 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 38 workings within 5 miles of Poncha Springs: 22 past producers, 9 occurrences, 5 producers, 2 unknowns. 5 still produce. What was taken out: Granite, Fluorine-Fluorite, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Buck and White Cloud Mica Claims | Mica | Occurrence | Muscovite | |
| Delay Tunnel | Gold | Past Producer | ||
| Friend Claims | Beryllium, Tantalum | Occurrence | ||
| Polly No 4 | Silver, Zinc, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Poncha Springs | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| R D H Mill | Lead, Zinc, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Springfield | Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Ben Hill Mine | Lead, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Calcium Mill | Calcium | Past Producer | ||
| Colorado Granite Finishing Plant | Stone | Past Producer |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smeltertown | 4.1 miles | 19 | |
| Salida | 4.4 miles | 17 | |
| Belleview | 4.4 miles | 19 | |
| Cleora | 5.7 miles | 17 | |
| Maysville | 6.3 miles | 17 | |
| Shirley (historical) | 6.7 miles | 19 | |
| Browns Canon | 6.9 miles | 19 | |
| Turret | 10.0 miles | 15 |
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 Poncha Springs | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2303261 | 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 189428. 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.







