BlockBefore

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

Silverton within San Juan County

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

Population over time

2 figures

Silverton 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.

YearPeople Change
2010637
2020622-15 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 30 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

7 since 1994

Regional 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
Natural4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2
Smoking1

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
24 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreSan Juan National Forest1339
4 August 2018Naturalunder an acreSan Juan National Forest1057
6 July 2003Naturalunder an acreSan Juan National ForestGRAND TURK
28 June 2013Naturalunder an acreSan Juan National ForestWHITEHEAD
28 June 1994Smokingunder an acreSan Juan National ForestMULESHOE
23 June 2004Natural1.0 acresTres Rios Field OfficeDEER PARK
2 June 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreColorado State Forest Service-State HeadquartersSILVERTON

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in San Juan County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 278 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Anglo-SaxonTungsten, Fluorine-Fluorite, Gold, SilverProspect
AspenLead, Silver, Copper, ZincProducerChalcopyrite, Galena, Pyrite, Silver, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite
Aspen MineLead, Zinc, Copper, Gold, SilverPast Producer
BelcerZinc, Lead, Silver, CopperProducerBarite, Chalcopyrite, Galena, Pyrite, Quartz, Sphalerite, Tetrahedrite
Big GiantCopper, Silver, LeadProducerVein
Blue JaySilver, Copper, Gold, Lead, TungstenPast Producer
BostonLead, Copper, Silver, Gold, ZincProducer
Boston GroupSilver, Zinc, Gold, LeadPast Producer
Brooklyn MineSilver, Gold, Lead, Zinc, CopperProducer
Champion MineZinc, Copper, Silver, Gold, LeadProducerVein

Every working recorded in San Juan County

Storms near this place

6 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 1996LightningSilverton4 hurtno account filed
August 1999Flash FloodSilverton$10,000no account filed
July 2007Flash FloodSilverton$5,000Heavy 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 1999Flash FloodSilverton$2,000no account filed
July 2021Debris FlowSilverton-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 1999Flash FloodSilverton-no account filed

Every storm recorded in San Juan 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
Howardsville4.1 miles32
Chattanooga (historical)5.3 miles30
Gladstone (historical)5.5 miles28
Middleton5.7 miles32
Eureka7.0 miles30
Animas Forks (historical)9.6 miles30
Beartown (historical)10.5 miles26
Needleton11.9 miles25

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 SilvertonAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q679125The 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.