BlockFrom the record
One of 13 National Register listings published here for Rio Grande County · listed in 1985 · category: Structure · built in 1924.
Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
Wheeler Bridge
Built in 1924. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
The listing
- What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
- Address. Off U.S. 160, Del Norte, 81132
- When was it listed? February 1985
- Category. structure
- Also known as. Vehicular Bridges in Colorado TR
- Census division. Del Norte
- When was it built? 1924
- National Register reference number. 85000235 - 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
64 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 64 fires within 5 miles of Wheeler Bridge between 1992 and 2012, burning about 82 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 4 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 |
|---|---|
| Recreation and ceremony | 23 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 22 |
| Debris and open burning | 4 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 4 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 4 |
| Smoking | 4 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 August 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Rio Grande County | not named |
| 8 July 1992 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Rio Grande County | not named |
| 29 July 1994 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Rio Grande County | not named |
| 24 July 1993 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Rio Grande County | not named |
| 15 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 13 July 2012 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | San Luis Valley Field Office | JEEP |
| 12 July 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | CSFS-Alamosa District | not named |
| 11 July 2011 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters | DEL NORTE |
Mines and quarries near this property
10 of 18 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 18 workings within 5 miles of Wheeler Bridge: 15 unknowns, 2 occurrences, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Stone, Iron. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spiegel | Iron | Past Producer | ||
| Unknown | Pumice | Occurrence | ||
| Rio Grande Granite Quarry | Gold | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Gold | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Stone | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown | ||
| Unk | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Unknown |
Storms near this property
9 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Del Norte, the town this property stands in, in 9 storm reports between 1998 and 2022: 5 hail, 2 heavy rain, 1 funnel cloud, 1 tornado. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2012 | Tornado (EF0) | Del Norte | $5,000 | A strong storm produced a non-mesocyclone (landspout) tornado just south of Del Norte. There was minor damage to several properties...including one property which sustained damage to a camper and minor structural damage to the house. |
| October 2022 | Heavy Rain | Del Norte | - | Heavy rainfall of 1.19 inches. |
| October 2022 | Heavy Rain | Del Norte | - | Heavy rainfall of 1.07 inches. |
| June 2004 | Hail | Del Norte | - | no account filed |
| April 2002 | Funnel Cloud | Del Norte | - | no account filed |
| June 2000 | Hail | Del Norte | - | no account filed |
| June 1999 | Hail | Del Norte | - | no account filed |
| September 1998 | Hail | Del Norte | - | no account filed |
| July 1998 | Hail | Del Norte | - | 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
1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Sutherland Bridge | 2.4 miles | 1985 |
Sources for this property
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 85000235 in Record Group 79. |
| Rio Grande County | All 13 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.