Vail, Colorado
21 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Minturn-Red Cliff census division. It lies in ZIP code area 81657. It stands on Spraddle Creek. The Survey maps it on the Vail East quadrangle. 4,835 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 8,022 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresVail fell from 5,305 to 4,835 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 | 5,305 | |
| 2020 | 4,835 | -470 (-9%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 21 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.
- 1934 USGS Minturn quadrangle1:62500, 5 printings
- 1950 USGS Minturn quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Leadville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1959 USGS Leadville quadrangle1:250000
- 1960 USGS Leadville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Leadville quadrangle1:250000
- 1964 USGS Leadville quadrangle1:250000
- 1970 USGS Vail East quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1980 USGS Vail quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
104 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 104 fires within 5 miles of Vail between 1992 and 2020, burning about 83 acres in total. 16 started naturally. 5 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 35 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 |
| Natural | 16 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 7 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 5 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 3 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 3 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Vail Fire and Emergency Services | UNKNOWN |
| 9 September 2009 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | White River National Forest | RADIO TOWER |
| 7 September 1995 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | White River National Forest | GAME CREEK |
| 5 September 2012 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | White River National Forest | DAVOS |
| 5 September 1992 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 acres | Eagle County | not named |
| 3 September 2007 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | White River National Forest | SAND STONE CREEK |
| 22 September 2016 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Vail Fire and Emergency Services | UNKNOWN |
| 17 September 2018 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | White River National Forest | CASCADE |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Vail: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ute Park, High Line, Blue Jay | Gold | Occurrence | Placer |
Storms near this place
3 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Vail in 3 storm reports between 2008 and 2011: 2 flash flood, 1 lightning. 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2008 | Lightning | Vail | $500,000 | Lightning struck a home in Vail Valley and ignited a fire within the floor structure and the ceiling cavity. The fire burned through five structural floor joists. The lightning also blew apart a section of the stone chimney and sent pieces flying up to 20 feet away. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Vail | $10,000 | A flash flood came down from the north in Middle Creek, flowed through culverts under I-70, and into a developed area of Vail on its way to Gore Creek. The normally 3 foot wide placid Middle Creek was a roaring force of water 12 feet wide and over 6 feet deep. The interior of the Vail Public Library sustained water 2 inches deep on the carpeting, and the basements of nearby lodges and condos were also flooded. A layer of mud and other debris covered parking areas, including the Dobson Ice Arena's parking lot. City crews worked vigorously with heavy equipment to divert the flood waters away from other locations in Vail. |
| June 2010 | Flash Flood | Vail | $10,000 | A burst of rainfall during the peak snowmelt period apparently caused a debris dam to break near the headwaters of Gore Creek. Gore Creek suddenly rose about 3 feet and stayed within the channel except in a few areas where it spread out and approached the entry of some condominiums. Additionally, trees up to 1.5 feet in diameter came down Gore Creek and jammed up at the bridges and culverts causing additional flooding, mostly to lawns and landscaping. A blocked culvert resulted in water flowing up to about a foot deep over Highway 24. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eagles Nest | 1.6 miles | 21 | |
| Mid Vail | 1.8 miles | 21 | |
| West Vail | 2.3 miles | 19 | |
| Bighorn | 4.1 miles | 21 | |
| Dowds Junction | 4.5 miles | 21 | |
| Minturn | 4.8 miles | 21 | |
| Astor City (historical) | 6.5 miles | 21 | |
| Gilman | 7.5 miles | 21 |
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 Vail | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q747987 | 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 202339. 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.








