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Photograph of Crestone School
Photograph by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Creststone School

Built in 1880. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

From the record

“The Crestone School, also known as the Crestone Community Building, at Cottonwood St. and Carbonate Ave. in Crestone, Colorado, was built in 1880 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.”

Wikipedia article Crestone School, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 7 National Register listings published here for Saguache County · listed in 1986 · category: Building · built in 1880.

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 4 buildingss, 1 object as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Cottonwood St. and Carbonate Ave., Crestone, 81131
  • When was it listed? January 1986
  • Category. building
  • Also known as. Rural School Buildings in Colorado MPS
  • Census division. Saguache
  • When was it built? 1880
  • National Register reference number. 86000011 - 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

121 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 121 fires within 5 miles of Creststone School between 1994 and 2020, burning about 116 acres in total. 5 started naturally. 2 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined110
Natural5
Recreation and ceremony2
Arson/incendiarism2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Debris and open burning1

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
6 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
4 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
25 September 2019Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreRio Grande National ForestWILLOW CREEK 2
24 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
13 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
10 September 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
9 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN
5 August 2016Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreBaca Grande Volunteer Fire DepartmentUNKNOWN

Every fire recorded in Saguache County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 24 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 24 workings within 5 miles of Creststone School: 17 past producers, 4 prospects, 3 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Gold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Uranium. 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
Bob Cat MineVanadium, Uranium, Thorium, REEPast Producer
Concordia ClaimCopper, Gold, SilverPast Producer1901
Crestone DistrictSilver, Lead, Copper, GoldPast Producer1900, 1939
Crestone Mineral Co. ClaimsGold, Copper, Lead, SilverProspect1901
Elarton Manganese DepositManganeseProspectHausmannite, Psilomelane
Independence MineGold, Copper, SilverPast Producer1937
San Isabel Mining and Milling Co. ClaimsGold, Silver, Copper, Lead, Barium-BaritePast ProducerVein
Unnamed MineSilver, Copper, GoldOccurrenceChalcocite, Gold, Pyrite
Unnamed Pegmatite MineStone, Feldspar, Quartz, ThoriumProspectEuxenite, Monazite, Xenotime
I. Kreiner MineQuartz, Feldspar, UraniumPast ProducerFeldspar, Quartz

Every working recorded in Saguache County

Storms near this property

16 since 1998

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Crestone, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 7 hail, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain, 1 lightning. 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
July 2003LightningCrestone1 killed, 1 hurtno account filed
September 2013Thunderstorm WindCrestone$10,000A severe wind on the southern edge of a storm knocked down around three dozen trees, and broke a few windows and did some roof damage to structures southeast of Crestone.
July 2025Debris FlowCrestone-Heavy rainfall over Medano Pass, in Great Sand Dunes National Park, triggered flash flooding and debris flows along Medano Pass Primitive Road. Sections of the road, culverts and other drainage infrastructure were washed out or covered in debris.
July 2021Flash FloodCrestone-There was a report of one house flooded and multiple houses being sandbagged near Willow Creek in the Baca Grande region of Crestone, Colorado.
August 2021Flash FloodCrestone-Scouring of gravel road surfaces, with deep trenches in some road ditches. Near by normally dry arroyo was bank full.
August 2021Flash FloodCrestone-Trained spotter reported road damage.
August 2019Heavy RainCrestone-Over one inch of rainfall fell within 70 minutes causing minor street flooding and a small creek to near bank-full.
April 2005Tornado (F0)Crestone-A funnel cloud moved onto the western slopes of the Sangre de Cristo mountains near Crestone. As the terrain intercepted the funnel cloud...it became a tornado on the mountainside for a brief time causeing some minor tree damage.
August 2021Heavy RainCrestone-no account filed
July 2018HailCrestone-no account filed
June 2015HailCrestone-no account filed
September 2013HailCrestone-no account filed
September 2013HailCrestone-no account filed
June 2010HailCrestone-no account filed
May 2007HailCrestone-no account filed
July 1998HailCrestone-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Saguache 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

1 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
Baca Land Grant No. 4-Baca Ranch Rural Historic Landscape7.6 miles2023

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 86000011 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Saguache CountyAll 7 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.