Ridgway, Colorado
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1909 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Ouray census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81432. It lies near Knife Edge. The Survey maps it on the Ridgway quadrangle. 1,183 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,900 feet above sea level.
On record in Ridgway
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 1 record
George Jackson Houselisted 1996
Population over time
2 figuresRidgway grew from 924 to 1,183 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 | 924 | |
| 2020 | 1,183 | +259 (+28%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 16 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.
- 1909 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:125000
- 1911 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
- 1956 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1959 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1967 USGS Ridgway quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1968 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:250000
- 1983 USGS Montrose quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
24 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Ridgway between 1992 and 2020, burning about 10 acres in total. 10 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13 |
| Natural | 10 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 September 2018 | Natural | under an acre | Southwest District, Montrose | RAT |
| 14 September 2005 | Natural | under an acre | Southwest District, Montrose | GRAVEL P 2 |
| 3 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 3 August 1992 | Natural | under an acre | Southwest District, Montrose | BANKERS |
| 23 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 15 August 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 11 August 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Southwest District, Montrose | DALLAS |
| 30 July 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Southwest District, Montrose | GRAVEL PIT |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Ridgway: 4 producers, 1 past producer, 1 unknown. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Lead, Copper, Zinc, Geothermal. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortuna | Lead, Copper, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Orvis Hot Spring | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Quarry | Stone | Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer |
Storms near this place
11 since 1999Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ridgway in 11 storm reports between 1999 and 2024: 3 flash flood, 3 heavy rain, 2 hail, 2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1999 | Flash Flood | Ridgway | $1,250,000 | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Flash Flood | Ridgway | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2022 | Flash Flood | Ridgway | $1,000 | Ouray County Sheriff's Office reported 3 feet of running water on County Road 24 and 24A as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms and runoff. |
| August 2024 | Debris Flow | Ridgway | - | Heavy rainfall resulted in mudslides along Highway 550 at mile marker 101.5, approximately 2 miles south-southeast of Ridgway. About an inch of storm total rainfall was reported in Ridgway with this event. Daily spot forecasts were requested by emergency management for both Ridgway and Ouray for extensive cleanup efforts for several days following the debris flows. |
| June 2009 | Heavy Rain | Ridgway | - | Heavy rainfall totaling 0.82 of an inch fell within about an hour resulting in minor street flooding. |
| July 2006 | Heavy Rain | Ridgway | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Heavy Rain | Ridgway | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Hail | Ridgway | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Flood | Ridgway | - | no account filed |
| July 2001 | Flood | Ridgway | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Hail | Ridgway | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas | 2.3 miles | 21 | |
| Loghill Village | 3.1 miles | 16 | |
| Portland | 5.9 miles | 26 | |
| Eldredge | 9.3 miles | 17 | |
| Ouray | 10.2 miles | 26 | |
| Thistledown | 11.5 miles | 28 | |
| Colona | 11.9 miles | 17 | |
| Sneffels (historical) | 12.3 miles | 28 |
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 Ridgway | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2198765 | 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 188398. 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.







