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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.

Ridgway within Ouray County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Ridgway 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.

YearPeople Change
2010924
20201,183+259 (+28%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 16 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

24 since 1992

Regional 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/undetermined13
Natural10
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
2 September 2018Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseRAT
14 September 2005Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseGRAVEL P 2
3 August 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
3 August 1992Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseBANKERS
23 August 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
15 August 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
11 August 2012Naturalunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseDALLAS
30 July 1995Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSouthwest District, MontroseGRAVEL PIT

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Ouray County

Mines and quarries near this place

6 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
FortunaLead, Copper, ZincPast Producer
Orvis Hot SpringGeothermalUnknown
QuarryStoneProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Ouray County

Storms near this place

11 since 1999

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 1999Flash FloodRidgway$1,250,000no account filed
August 2000Flash FloodRidgway$5,000no account filed
July 2022Flash FloodRidgway$1,000Ouray 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 2024Debris FlowRidgway-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 2009Heavy RainRidgway-Heavy rainfall totaling 0.82 of an inch fell within about an hour resulting in minor street flooding.
July 2006Heavy RainRidgway-no account filed
August 2005Heavy RainRidgway-no account filed
July 2001HailRidgway-no account filed
July 2001FloodRidgway-no account filed
July 2001FloodRidgway-no account filed
July 2000HailRidgway-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Ouray County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Dallas2.3 miles21
Loghill Village3.1 miles16
Portland5.9 miles26
Eldredge9.3 miles17
Ouray10.2 miles26
Thistledown11.5 miles28
Colona11.9 miles17
Sneffels (historical)12.3 miles28

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 RidgwayAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2198765The 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.