William Kauffman House

Built in 1891. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

From the record

“The William Kauffman House is the only historic brick or masonry house in Rico, Colorado. Built in 1891 during the mining boom that drove Rico's population to 4,000, the house was the residence of the Kauffman family until 1915.”
Wikipedia article William Kauffman House, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 3 National Register listings published here for Dolores County · listed in 1982 · category: Building · built in 1891.

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.
Listed as. Kauffman, William, House - the National Register files a house under its owner's surname.
Address. Silver St., Rico, 81332
When was it listed? October 1982
Category. building
Census division. Rico
When was it built? 1891
National Register reference number. 82001014 - 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 William Kauffman House 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 ceremony	3
Natural	3
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	2

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
21 September 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	San Juan National Forest	CF 1143
2 September 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Rico Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
31 August 2020	Natural	under an acre	San Juan National Forest	BOOTLEG
28 August 2020	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	San Juan National Forest	CF 1028
26 August 2008	Natural	under an acre	San Juan National Forest	REB
29 July 1994	Natural	7.0 acres	San Juan National Forest	SECTION
2 July 2017	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Rico Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
27 May 2018	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	San Juan National Forest	CF-386

Every fire recorded in Dolores County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 208 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 208 workings within 5 miles of William Kauffman House: 134 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.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Argentine	Silver, Zinc, Copper, Gold, Lead	Past Producer
Argonaut Mine	Silver, Lead, Copper, Zinc	Past Producer	Chalcopyrite, Pyrite, Sphalerite
Barlow Group	Uranium, Vanadium	Past Producer	1940, 1942
Ben Group	Silver, Lead, Copper, Zinc	Past Producer
Bloine Tunnel	Uranium, Zinc, Copper, Lead, Silver	Unknown
Burns Group	Gold, Zinc, Copper, Lead, Silver	Past Producer
C. H. C. Group	Silver, Lead, Zinc, Sulfur-Pyrite	Past Producer	1879
Caledonia	Copper, Lead, Molybdenum, Sulfur, Zinc	Unknown
Calico Peak	Aluminum, Sulfur, Sulfuric Acid, Molybdenum, Potassium	Prospect	1912
Calico Peak Alunite Deposit	Aluminum, Molybdenum, Sulfur, Lead, Silver, Potassium, Manganese, Copper, Titanium, Metal	Occurrence	1899

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.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 2017	Lightning	Rico	1 killed, 1 hurt	Lightning 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 2023	Flood	Rico	$500	Increased flood waters due to rapid snowmelt damaged a private bridge off of Colorado Highway 145, near mile marker 22.
September 2007	Heavy Rain	Rico	-	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	Property	Distance	Listed
	Rico City Hall	under 500 feet	1974
	Dey Building	0.1 miles	1999

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 82001014 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Dolores County	All 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.