Silverton, Colorado
30 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1897 and the latest in 1982. It stands in the Silverton census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81433. It stands on Cement Creek. The Survey maps it on the Silverton quadrangle. 622 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 9,301 feet above sea level.
Research this city
On record in Silverton
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 5 records
Shenandoah-Dives MillNational Historic Landmark · listed 2000
Silverton Historic DistrictNational Historic Landmark · listed 1966
Silverton Historic District (Boundary Increase)National Historic Landmark · listed 1997- Frisco-Bagley Mine and Tunnellisted 2020
- Martin Mining Complexlisted 2004
Population over time
2 figuresSilverton fell from 637 to 622 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 | 637 | |
| 2020 | 622 | -15 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
12 surveys from 30 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 Silverton quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1901 USGS Silverton quadrangle1:62500
- 1902 USGS Silverton quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
- 1945 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000
- 1954 USGS Durango quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1955 USGS Silverton quadrangle1:24000, 7 printings
- 1955 USGS Silverton quadrangle1:62500, 3 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
7 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Silverton between 1994 and 2018, burning about 2 acres in total. 4 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 | 4 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | 1339 |
| 4 August 2018 | Natural | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | 1057 |
| 6 July 2003 | Natural | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | GRAND TURK |
| 28 June 2013 | Natural | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | WHITEHEAD |
| 28 June 1994 | Smoking | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | MULESHOE |
| 23 June 2004 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Tres Rios Field Office | DEER PARK |
| 2 June 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | SILVERTON |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 278 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 278 workings within 5 miles of Silverton: 96 past producers, 82 unknowns, 52 producers, 45 occurrences. 53 still produce. What was taken out: Zinc, Lead, Gold, Copper, Gold, Lead, Silver. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anglo-Saxon | Tungsten, Fluorine-Fluorite, Gold, Silver | Prospect | ||
| Aspen | Lead, Silver, Copper, Zinc | Producer | Chalcopyrite, Galena, Pyrite, Silver, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite | |
| Aspen Mine | Lead, Zinc, Copper, Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Belcer | Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper | Producer | Barite, Chalcopyrite, Galena, Pyrite, Quartz, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite | |
| Big Giant | Copper, Silver, Lead | Producer | Vein | |
| Blue Jay | Silver, Copper, Gold, Lead, Tungsten | Past Producer | ||
| Boston | Lead, Copper, Silver, Gold, Zinc | Producer | ||
| Boston Group | Silver, Zinc, Gold, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Brooklyn Mine | Silver, Gold, Lead, Zinc, Copper | Producer | ||
| Champion Mine | Zinc, Copper, Silver, Gold, Lead | Producer | Vein |
Storms near this place
6 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Silverton in 6 storm reports between 1996 and 2021: 4 flash flood, 1 lightning, 1 debris flow. The reports record 4 injuries. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 1996 | Lightning | Silverton | 4 hurt | no account filed |
| August 1999 | Flash Flood | Silverton | $10,000 | no account filed |
| July 2007 | Flash Flood | Silverton | $5,000 | Heavy convective rainfall concentrated just north of the La Plata and San Juan County line produced a massive flow of water, rock, and mud which traveled across the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gage Railroad track and dammed up the Animas River about one mile north of Needleton. Initially, the entire river channel was dammed. The river bed at that location was raised 8 feet on the east side of the channel and remained blocked on the west side of the channel. The debris flow covered about 250 feet of railroad track. The peak depth of debris on the railroad track was measured at close to 45 feet. The railroad track did not sustain significant damage, because the lowest several feet of debris on the track consisted primarily of mud. On top of the mud was a lot of rock material with some trees mixed in it. |
| August 1999 | Flash Flood | Silverton | $2,000 | no account filed |
| July 2021 | Debris Flow | Silverton | - | A debris flow occurred as a result of heavy rain over Ophir Pass in the Southwest San Juan Mountains. Social media footage showed a combination of rock and mud across the pass with cars having to turn around as a result of the debris flow. |
| July 1999 | Flash Flood | Silverton | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Howardsville | 4.1 miles | 32 | |
| Chattanooga (historical) | 5.3 miles | 30 | |
| Gladstone (historical) | 5.5 miles | 28 | |
| Middleton | 5.7 miles | 32 | |
| Eureka | 7.0 miles | 30 | |
| Animas Forks (historical) | 9.6 miles | 30 | |
| Beartown (historical) | 10.5 miles | 26 | |
| Needleton | 11.9 miles | 25 |
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 Silverton | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q679125 | 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 204750. 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.











