BlockFrom the record
One of 9 National Register listings published here for San Miguel County · listed in 2003 · category: Structure.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Rio Grande Southern Railroad Trout Lake Water Tank
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
- Address. along North Trout Lake Rd., Ophir, 81435
- When was it listed? August 2003
- Category. structure
- Also known as. Railroads in Colorado, 1858-1948 MPS
- Census division. Telluride
- National Register reference number. 03000777 - 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
22 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Rio Grande Southern Railroad Trout Lake Water Tank between 1993 and 2020, burning about 136 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 1 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 9 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Natural | 4 |
| Debris and open burning | 2 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 1 |
| Smoking | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 September 1993 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | not named |
| 18 September 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | San Juan National Forest | CF 1136 |
| 30 August 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | San Miguel County | HIDDEN LAKE |
| 23 August 2017 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Telluride Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 2 August 2000 | Natural | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | HOPE |
| 14 August 2015 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | SWAMP CANYON |
| 10 August 2009 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | DUMPSTER FIRE |
| 6 July 1993 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests | not named |
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 119 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 119 workings within 5 miles of Rio Grande Southern Railroad Trout Lake Water Tank: 63 past producers, 31 unknowns, 18 occurrences, 7 producers. 7 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Lead. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alta Mine | Gold, Lead, Copper, Silver, Zinc | Past Producer | ||
| Black Hawk Tunnel | Gold, Silver, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Butterfly Mine | Lead, Copper, Gold, Silver | Producer | Vein | |
| Carbonero Mine | Lead, Zinc, Copper, Gold, Silver | Producer | Sphalerite | |
| Emma,Oregon and Galena | Lead, Zinc, Gold, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Gold Run Dump | Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Golden Gate | Silver, Lead, Zinc | Unknown | ||
| Iron Springs Group | Gold, Lead, Silver, Zinc, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Lake View Group | Gold, Silver, Zinc, Copper, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Montana Vein | Tungsten | Unknown |
Storms near this property
4 since 2000Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Ophir, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2000 and 2025: 2 flash flood, 2 debris flow. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2025 | Debris Flow | Ophir | - | Heavy rain resulted in a rockslide on Highway 45 at mile marker 64.5, about 1 mile north of the Ophir turns between 0900 and 0930 MST. A boulder the size of a small sedan fell on Highway 145, blocking the road. Lanes were reopened by 1030 MST. |
| July 2013 | Debris Flow | Ophir | - | Heavy rainfall resulted in a debris flow which closed Highway 145 south of Telluride for several hours. |
| July 2011 | Flash Flood | Ophir | - | A flash flood deposited mud up to 6 feet deep covering a 100 foot section of TR Road 630, the main road to Ophir. The road was closed for about 8 hours as heavy equipment was used to remove the mud and other debris from the road. |
| July 2000 | Flash Flood | Ophir | - | no account filed |
Map coverage status
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
2 within 8 milesOther 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.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valley View Leasing and Mining Company Mill | 1.8 miles | 2010 | |
 | Lewis Mill | 6.9 miles | 2009 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 03000777 in Record Group 79. |
| San Miguel County | All 9 listed properties in this county. |
Provenance
- 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.