BlockFrom the record
One of 21 National Register listings published here for Montezuma County · listed in 2016 · category: Building · built in 1909.
Sources: the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article
Cortez High School
Built in 1909. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
The listing
- Address. 121 E. First St., Cortez, 81321
- When was it listed? March 2016
- Category. building
- Census division. Cortez
- When was it built? 1909
- National Register reference number. 16000098 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.
Fires near this property
263 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 263 fires within 5 miles of Cortez High School between 1992 and 2020, burning about 206 acres in total. 109 started naturally. 3 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 109 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 109 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 19 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 4 |
| Fireworks | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September 1994 | Natural | under an acre | Montezuma County | not named |
| 20 September 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Montezuma County | not named |
| 17 September 2018 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Lewis-Arriola Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 14 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Cortez Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 11 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1.0 acres | Cortez Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 11 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Cortez Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 10 September 2016 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Cortez Fire Protection District | UNKNOWN |
| 10 September 2007 | Natural | under an acre | Tres Rios Field Office | POWERLINE 2 |
Mines and quarries near this property
6 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Cortez High School: 3 occurrences, 2 producers, 1 prospect. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. 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 | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Prospect | ||
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence | Gravel | |
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence | Gravel | |
| Unknown | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence | Gravel |
Storms near this property
59 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cortez, the town this property stands in, in 59 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 10 thunderstorm wind, 9 lightning, 9 wildfire, 8 heavy rain. The reports record 3 injuries. 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 2001 | Lightning | Cortez | 3 hurt | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Cortez | $1,000,000 | no account filed |
| August 2002 | Wildfire | Cortez | $300,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Lightning | Cortez | $150,000 | no account filed |
| June 1996 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | $100,000 | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Lightning | Cortez | $60,000 | no account filed |
| July 2018 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | $50,000 | Thunderstorms moved over the area and produced 1.55 inches of rain within an hour and a half. Street flooding occurred as the storm drains were not able to handle the volume of rainfall. Water backed up into an area next to the flooded roads and flowed into the ground level floors of an apartment building. Water also pooled up to about a foot deep in a large vacant field. |
| June 2006 | Flash Flood | Cortez | $30,000 | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Wildfire | Cortez | $30,000 | no account filed |
| October 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | $20,000 | Large trees were blown down in Cortez. One tree landed on a truck on Market Street. A 50 foot spruce tree about 2.5 feet in diameter was snapped off about 15 feet above the ground. Also, a 75 foot section of the roof on the Ace Hardware store on North Broadway was peeled back.| |
| September 2005 | Lightning | Cortez | $20,000 | no account filed |
| September 2003 | Flash Flood | Cortez | $20,000 | no account filed |
| February 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | $20,000 | no account filed |
| August 2023 | Flood | Cortez | $10,000 | The emergency manager reported that heavy rain from thunderstorms led to minor flooding across portions of Cortez, including some basements in homes along Highway 491 and Veterans Park. |
| May 2017 | Lightning | Cortez | $10,000 | Morning thunderstorms produced frequent lightning which ignited numerous tree fires and blasted a tree which fell across electrical lines. Lightning also sparked a structure fire on South Madison Street in Cortez. |
| August 2006 | Flash Flood | Cortez | $10,000 | no account filed |
| September 2003 | Flash Flood | Cortez | $10,000 | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | $8,000 | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | $7,000 | no account filed |
| July 2005 | Lightning | Cortez | $4,000 | no account filed |
| May 2004 | Dust Devil | Cortez | $3,000 | no account filed |
| August 2013 | Lightning | Cortez | $2,000 | A power pole was struck by lightning and started on fire. |
| July 1998 | Lightning | Cortez | $2,000 | no account filed |
| October 1998 | Lightning | Cortez | $500 | no account filed |
| August 2022 | Flood | Cortez | $100 | Localized flooding occurred at the intersection of 1st Street and South Maple Street as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms. |
| August 2023 | Flood | Cortez | - | The emergency manager reported several inches of rain running through the streets of Cortez as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms. The Cooperative Observer measured 0.55 inches of rain in 35 minutes. |
| August 2023 | Flood | Cortez | - | The emergency manager reported flooding at the intersection of 25 and L Roads northeast of downtown Cortez as a result of heavy rain from thunderstorms. |
| July 2018 | Flood | Cortez | - | Thunderstorms moving over the area produced 1.55 inches of rain in an hour and a half. Minor street and building flooding occurred with the first floor of a low lying apartment receiving some water. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | - | About 3 miles east of Cortez a storm total of 1.31 inches of rain was measured. |
| August 2016 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | - | In Cortez 0.72 of an inch of rain was measured within a 4 hour period. |
| September 2013 | Flash Flood | Cortez | - | A car was washed 15 feet off Highway 160 into a ditch by flash flood waters. Mud and debris was also reported at mile marker 29 at the intersection with County Road 21. |
| July 2007 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | - | Thunderstorms produced rainfall of 1.20 inches in Cortez between 1325 and 1410 MST. The heavy rain caused street flooding in Cortez. The water was up to three feet deep on 5th Street. |
| June 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| June 2006 | Hail | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 2006 | Hail | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| October 2006 | Hail | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| September 2005 | Funnel Cloud | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 2005 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 2004 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 2003 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| September 2003 | Flash Flood | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| June 2003 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 2003 | Hail | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| November 2002 | Flood | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| September 2002 | Flood | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 2002 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 2000 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 2000 | Flood | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Wildfire | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| August 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Thunderstorm Wind | Cortez | - | no account filed |
| September 1997 | Heavy Rain | Cortez | - | 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
5 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Montezuma Valley National Bank and Store Building | 0.2 miles | 2009 |
 | Ertel Funeral Home | 0.2 miles | 1995 |
 | Montezuma Valley Irrigation Company Flume No. 6 | 4.4 miles | 2012 |
| Haynie Site | 4.9 miles | 2017 | |
 | Lebanon School | 7.7 miles | 1996 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 16000098 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Montezuma County | All 21 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.