Photograph by National Park Service, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Colorado National Monument Visitor Center Complex
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
From the record
“The Colorado National Monument Visitor Center Complex is a group of structures in Colorado National Monument in Mesa County, Colorado, United States, that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article Colorado National Monument Visitor Center Complex, CC BY-SA 4.0.
One of 33 National Register listings published here for Mesa County · listed in 2003 · category: District.
National Register reference number.03000647- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
371 since 1992
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 371 fires within 5 miles of Colorado National Monument Visitor Center Complex
between 1992 and 2020, burning about 669 acres in total. 84 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
187
Natural
84
Smoking
33
Equipment and vehicle use
25
Recreation and ceremony
19
Debris and open burning
8
Fireworks
6
Arson/incendiarism
5
Misuse of fire by a minor
2
Power generation/transmission/distribution
2
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
15 workings within 5 miles of Colorado National Monument Visitor Center Complex: 10 unknowns, 3 producers, 2 occurrences.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Fire Clay (Refractory), Stone, Dimension, Stone. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Fruita, the town this property stands in, in 53 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 20 thunderstorm wind, 14 heavy rain, 7 hail, 5 flash flood.
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.
A flash flood occurred in Hunter Canyon on 21 Road northeast of Fruita with an estimated 8 feet of water flowing down the wash. Though not within the Pine Gulch Fire burn scar, the heavy rain originated from the scar and flowed downstream.
Heavy rainfall resulted in street flooding and some damage to businesses in the downtown area of Fruita. Exactly an inch of rain fell within 45 minutes at one location. Radar estimated up to 1.5 inches of rainfall at other locations in Fruita.
An estimated peak wind gust of 65 MPH brought down some tree limbs. A window was broken after it was hit by a 1-inch diameter, 3 foot long tree branch.
A trained spotter reported street flooding at the intersection of State Route 340 and Rimrock Drive, near the west entrance to Colorado National Monument. No reports of road closures or damages due to this flooding were received.
At 3:06 PM MDT, NWS Grand Junction received a report from local law enforcement that powerlines had been downed in nearby Fruita, CO in association with a passing severe thunderstorm. Six minutes later, this storm reached the Grand Junction Regional Airport, where the KGJT ASOS recorded a wind gust to 68 mph. No other damages were reported with this event, and no reports of injuries or fatalities were received.
Between 1625 and 1650 MST, a severe storm tracked southeast through the Grand Valley from Fruita through Orchard Mesa, including the Redlands and Grand Junction, with numerous reports of severe hail from 1 inch to 1.75 inches in diameter, which is up to golf ball size. Multiple injuries occurred as a result of the large hail at the Mesa County Fairgrounds where an outdoor concert event was being held. Multiple reports of damage to windshields, roofs and siding of homes as well. The extent of injuries and damage is unknown at this time.
Rainfall amount of 0.37 inches fell in 10 to 15 minutes causing minor street flooding in Fruita as drains could not keep up. Rates were 1 to 2 inch per hour.
Closures were implemented on the outer lane of I-70 at Skipper Island west of Fruita in both directions as a result of flooding along the Colorado River. The closure was updated to only include the right lane of I-70 westbound several days later.
The Colorado Department of Transportation reported flash flooding on Colorado Highway 340 at the west entrance to the Colorado National Monument. Up to 6 inches of water ran across the road as a result of heavy from thunderstorms. Additionally, some large boulder collapsed on the road as well as some mud. The superintendent of the Colorado National Monument also reported several inches of water flooded the Visitor's Center. Luckily, there were no injuries or damage to cars reported during the event. The rain gauge, located across from the Visitor's Center, recorded 0.90 inches of rain in 20 minutes.
A thunderstorm tracked across Mesa County and dropped heavy rainfall in some locations, including 0.84 of an inch at a location 4.5 miles north-northeast of Fruita and about three-quarters of an inch from 3 miles east-northeast of Palisade to Collbran. Minor flooding was reporting in some locations.
Flash flooding was reported from the west entrance to the Colorado National Monument onto Highway 340 where a significant amount of mud and debris was deposited onto the roadway.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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