Francisco Plaza

Built in 1862. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

From the record

“Francisco Plaza, also known as Francisco Fort Museum, built in 1862, was the first significant dwelling in the Cuchara Valley at what became La Veta, Colorado. The plaza is now a part of the museum complex.”
Wikipedia article Francisco Plaza, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 10 National Register listings published here for Huerfano County · listed in 1986 · category: Building · built in 1862.

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 2 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. 312 S. Main St., Le Veta, 81055
When was it listed? October 1986
Category. building
Census division. La Veta
When was it built? 1862
National Register reference number. 86002950 - 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

22 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 22 fires within 5 miles of Francisco Plaza between 1995 and 2020, burning about 273 acres in total. 2 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/undetermined	14
Arson/incendiarism	2
Natural	2
Smoking	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Debris and open burning	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
5 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	LA VETA
11 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	LA VETA
12 July 2014	Natural	under an acre	La Veta Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
11 July 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	LA VETA
3 June 2018	Natural	under an acre	La Veta Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
11 June 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Colorado State Forest Service-State Headquarters	LA VETA
5 May 2013	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	La Veta Fire Protection District	UNKNOWN
4 April 2020	Smoking	under an acre	La Veta Fire Protection District	N/A

Every fire recorded in Huerfano County

Mines and quarries near this property

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Francisco Plaza: 6 past producers. None of them still produces. 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.

Site	Commodity	Status
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Unknown	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Huerfano 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
	Lamme Hospital	under 500 feet	1993
	Smith, Edwin L. Building	under 500 feet	2020

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 86002950 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Huerfano County	All 10 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.