Swink, Colorado
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1981. It stands in the La Junta census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81077. It stands on Timpas Creek. The Survey maps it on the Rocky Ford quadrangle. 604 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,121 feet above sea level.
On record in Swink
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
- Swink Schoollisted 2025
Population over time
3 figuresSwink fell from 696 to 604 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 696 | |
| 2010 | 617 | -79 (-11%) |
| 2020 | 604 | -13 (-2%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 14 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.
- 1891 USGS Catlin quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Catlin quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1954 USGS Lamar quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1955 USGS Rocky Ford quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Lamar quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1981 USGS Las Animas quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
194 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 194 fires within 5 miles of Swink between 1995 and 2020, burning about 579 acres in total. 5 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 | 156 |
| Smoking | 12 |
| Debris and open burning | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 9 |
| Natural | 5 |
| Fireworks | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | La Junta Rural Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 24 September 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 17 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | La Junta Rural Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 1 September 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | LA JUNTA |
| 1 September 2003 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 8 August 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | La Junta Rural Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 7 August 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | not named |
| 4 August 2015 | Natural | under an acre | La Junta Rural Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 19 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 19 workings within 5 miles of Swink: 13 unknowns, 5 occurrences, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Fire Clay (Refractory), Clay. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unk | Clay | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Producer | Sedimentary | |
| Unk | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Unknown | Stone | Occurrence | ||
| La Junta Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this place
19 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Swink in 19 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 14 hail, 2 flash flood, 1 lightning, 1 thunderstorm wind. The reports record 1 death. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1996 | Lightning | Swink | 1 killed | no account filed |
| September 2001 | Hail | Swink | $10,000 | Severe thunderstorms produced hail up to baseball size in northern Otero County. At Holbrook Reservoir golf ball to baseball size hail killed over 1600 birds. The dead birds include: 1479 pelicans...over 100 acelots...about 50 gulls...24 ducks...and a couple dozen other waterfowl. A few homes in the area also had their windows broken by the large hail. |
| August 2022 | Flash Flood | Swink | - | Flooding over Highway 50 in spots between Reynolds Ave and CR 24. |
| July 2022 | Heavy Rain | Swink | - | Heavy rainfall of 2.22 inches. |
| May 2015 | Flash Flood | Swink | - | The Highway 50 underpass was flooded with around 12 inches of water near Swink. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| July 2023 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| August 2017 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| June 2016 | Thunderstorm Wind | Swink | - | no account filed |
| May 2015 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| September 2012 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| June 2009 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| May 2008 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| June 2005 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| May 2005 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Hail | Swink | - | no account filed |
| September 1996 | Hail | Swink | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roberta | 2.8 miles | 18 | |
| Hays | 4.1 miles | 16 | |
| La Junta Gardens | 4.1 miles | 18 | |
| Ormega | 4.3 miles | 18 | |
| Shelton | 4.9 miles | 16 | |
| Hawley | 4.9 miles | 18 | |
| La Junta | 4.9 miles | 18 | |
| North La Junta | 5.2 miles | 18 |
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 Swink | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2366080 | 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 204827. 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.





