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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.

Swink within Otero County

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

Population over time

3 figures

Swink 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.

YearPeople Change
2000696
2010617-79 (-11%)
2020604-13 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 14 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

194 since 1995

Regional 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/undetermined156
Smoking12
Debris and open burning10
Equipment and vehicle use9
Natural5
Fireworks2

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
29 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresLa Junta Rural Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN
24 September 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
17 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreLa Junta Rural Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN
1 September 2011Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresColorado State Forest Service-State HeadquartersLA JUNTA
1 September 2003Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
8 August 2015Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreLa Junta Rural Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN
7 August 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresColorado State Forest Service-State Headquartersnot named
4 August 2015Naturalunder an acreLa Junta Rural Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Otero County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 19 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
UnkClayUnknown
UnknownFire Clay (Refractory)ProducerSedimentary
UnkStoneUnknown
UnkStoneUnknown
UnknownStoneOccurrence
La Junta Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
UnkSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Otero County

Storms near this place

19 since 1996

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 1996LightningSwink1 killedno account filed
September 2001HailSwink$10,000Severe 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 2022Flash FloodSwink-Flooding over Highway 50 in spots between Reynolds Ave and CR 24.
July 2022Heavy RainSwink-Heavy rainfall of 2.22 inches.
May 2015Flash FloodSwink-The Highway 50 underpass was flooded with around 12 inches of water near Swink.
July 2023HailSwink-no account filed
July 2023HailSwink-no account filed
August 2017HailSwink-no account filed
June 2016Thunderstorm WindSwink-no account filed
May 2015HailSwink-no account filed
September 2012HailSwink-no account filed
June 2010HailSwink-no account filed
June 2009HailSwink-no account filed
May 2008HailSwink-no account filed
May 2008HailSwink-no account filed
June 2005HailSwink-no account filed
May 2005HailSwink-no account filed
September 1996HailSwink-no account filed
September 1996HailSwink-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Otero 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
Roberta2.8 miles18
Hays4.1 miles16
La Junta Gardens4.1 miles18
Ormega4.3 miles18
Shelton4.9 miles16
Hawley4.9 miles18
La Junta4.9 miles18
North La Junta5.2 miles18

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 SwinkAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2366080The 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.