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Photograph of Rico Town Hall
Photograph by Eric S. Kounce as TexasRaiser, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Rico City Hall

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

“Rico Town Hall or Rico City Hall is a multi-purpose building in the tiny mountain mining town of Rico, Colorado. Rico was formerly the county seat of Dolores County, and the city hall was built as the Dolores County Courthouse in 1892 by a "Mr.”

Wikipedia article Rico Town Hall, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 3 National Register listings published here for Dolores County · listed in 1974 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. NE corner of Commercial and Mantz Sts., Rico, 81332
  • When was it listed? December 1974
  • Category. building
  • Census division. Rico
  • National Register reference number. 74000574 - 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

8 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 8 fires within 5 miles of Rico City Hall between 1994 and 2020, burning about 8 acres in total. 3 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
Recreation and ceremony3
Natural3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined2

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
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSan Juan National ForestCF 1143
2 September 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRico Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN
31 August 2020Naturalunder an acreSan Juan National ForestBOOTLEG
28 August 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSan Juan National ForestCF 1028
26 August 2008Naturalunder an acreSan Juan National ForestREB
29 July 1994Natural7.0 acresSan Juan National ForestSECTION
2 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreRico Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN
27 May 2018Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreSan Juan National ForestCF-386

Every fire recorded in Dolores County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 206 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 206 workings within 5 miles of Rico City Hall: 132 past producers, 30 prospects, 21 unknowns, 20 occurrences. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Silver, Gold, Lead, Zinc. 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
ArgentineSilver, Zinc, Copper, Gold, LeadPast Producer
Argonaut MineSilver, Lead, Copper, ZincPast ProducerChalcopyrite, Pyrite, Sphalerite
Ben GroupSilver, Lead, Copper, ZincPast Producer
Bloine TunnelUranium, Zinc, Copper, Lead, SilverUnknown
Burns GroupGold, Zinc, Copper, Lead, SilverPast Producer
C. H. C. GroupSilver, Lead, Zinc, Sulfur-PyritePast Producer1879
CaledoniaCopper, Lead, Molybdenum, Sulfur, ZincUnknown
Calico PeakAluminum, Sulfur, Sulfuric Acid, Molybdenum, PotassiumProspect1912
Calico Peak Alunite DepositAluminum, Molybdenum, Sulfur, Lead, Silver, Potassium, Manganese, Copper, Titanium, MetalOccurrence1899
CaliforniaLead, Copper, Gold, SilverProspect

Every working recorded in Dolores County

Storms near this property

3 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Rico, the town this property stands in, in 3 storm reports between 2007 and 2023: 1 heavy rain, 1 lightning, 1 flood. The reports record 1 death and 1 injury. 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
August 2017LightningRico1 killed, 1 hurtLightning struck two mountain bikers who had gotten below tree line to seek shelter. One mountain biker was killed. The other only had minor injuries and her clothes were shredded. They had been riding on a trail just above the 10,200 foot level on the East Fork Trail near the Lizard Head Wilderness Area. The mountain bikers were either under or very near a tree when struck by lightning. After being struck, the male victim was talking and conscious for about a minute, and then collapsed. CPR was administered immediately by the female victim, and then an EMT who was also mountain biking in the area came over to assist, but all efforts were unsuccessful.
May 2023FloodRico$500Increased flood waters due to rapid snowmelt damaged a private bridge off of Colorado Highway 145, near mile marker 22.
September 2007Heavy RainRico-Rainfall of 1.50 inches was reported. The Dolores River was running high and overflowed its banks into a grassy area at North Bridge.

Every storm recorded in Dolores County

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 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
William Kauffman Houseunder 500 feet1982
Dey Buildingunder 500 feet1999

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 74000574 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Dolores CountyAll 3 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.