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South Fork, Colorado

22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1914 and the latest in 2001. It stands in the Del Norte census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81154. It stands on South Fork Rio Grande. The Survey maps it on the South Fork West quadrangle. 510 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 8,209 feet above sea level.

South Fork within Rio Grande County

On record in South Fork

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 3 records

Population over time

3 figures

South Fork fell from 604 to 510 between 2000 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
2000604
2010386-218 (-36%)
2020510+124 (+32%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

11 surveys from 22 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

40 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 40 fires within 5 miles of South Fork between 1993 and 2019, burning about 9,338 acres in total. 23 started naturally. 4 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
Natural23
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Arson/incendiarism4
Recreation and ceremony3
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
7 September 2014Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National ForestWILLOW
3 September 1998Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National ForestBEAVER MTN
12 September 2009Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National ForestWILLOW PARK
1 September 2002Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National ForestMILLION SPOT
5 August 2002Natural1.0 acresRio Grande National ForestSHAW MESA
20 August 2002Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National ForestTROUT
17 August 2008Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National ForestLOST LAKE 2
13 August 1994Naturalunder an acreRio Grande National Forestnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Rio Grande County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of South Fork: 2 occurrences, 1 past producer, 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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
Pog PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrence
UnknownSand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrenceGravel

Every working recorded in Rio Grande County

Storms near this place

9 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Fork in 9 storm reports between 1994 and 2022: 4 hail, 2 wildfire, 2 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. 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 2002WildfireSouth Fork$11,000,000no account filed
June 2002WildfireSouth Fork$11,000,000no account filed
July 1994HailSouth Fork$5,000A spotter reported marble-size hail caused damage to homes east of South Fork (38 miles west northwest of Alamosa), and stripped leaves off of trees.
October 2022Heavy RainSouth Fork-Heavy rainfall of 1.17 inches.
August 2003Flash FloodSouth Fork-Heavy thunderstorm rains caused Beaver Creek road...Mill Creek road and some secondary roads to be closed due to water. Mud and debris flowed across the roads inundated drainage ditches in and near the Million Burn scar.
August 2003Flash FloodSouth Fork-Heavy thunderstorm rains caused Beaver Creek road...Escondida road and Skyline road to close due to high water and mud and ash flows.
July 2012HailSouth Fork-no account filed
July 2006HailSouth Fork-no account filed
September 2000HailSouth Fork-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Rio Grande 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
Baxterville1.0 miles22
Gerrard2.5 miles21
Alpine3.0 miles21
Hanna9.6 miles19
Del Norte15.2 miles19
Summitville (historical)16.7 miles24
Evansville17.0 miles19
Jasper19.8 miles22

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 South ForkAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q727814The 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 203420. 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.