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Bent, New Mexico

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Tularosa census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88314. It lies near Nogal Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Mescalero quadrangle. 150 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,823 feet above sea level.

Bent within Otero County

Population over time

2 figures

Bent grew from 119 to 150 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010119
2020150+31 (+26%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 10 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

255 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 255 fires within 5 miles of Bent between 1992 and 2020, burning about 254 acres in total. 14 started naturally. 24 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/undetermined83
Debris and open burning53
Arson/incendiarism24
Recreation and ceremony21
Other causes16
Misuse of fire by a minor16
Natural14
Smoking10
Equipment and vehicle use8
Fireworks8
Power generation/transmission/distribution2

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
27 September 2005Naturalunder an acreMescalero AgencyELM STREET
13 September 2011Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMescalero AgencyKOKOPELLI 2
8 August 1996Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMescalero AgencyCASTLE
7 August 1998Debris and open burningunder an acreMescalero AgencyA SIDE
23 August 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMescalero AgencyMOUNTAIN
22 August 1993Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMescalero AgencyGERONIMO
1 August 2016Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreMescalero AgencyCACTUS
9 July 1999Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMescalero AgencyTRACK

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Otero County

Mines and quarries near this place

6 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 6 workings within 5 miles of Bent: 4 unknowns, 1 occurrence, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper, Bismuth, Silver. 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
Grandview MineCopper, BismuthOccurrence
Mescalero Magnetite-HematiteIronUnknown
Virginia MineCopper, SilverPast Producer1905, 1917
State Hwy Pit No 63-26-SSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
State Hwy Pit No. 80-2-SSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
State Hwy Pit No. 80-3-SSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in Otero County

Storms near this place

3 since 2022

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bent in 3 storm reports between 2022 and 2025: 3 flash flood. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
July 2022Flash FloodBent$10,000A total of 2.25 inches of rain fell at the Newcalero Tribal Fish Hatchery in about an hour and a half. Flash flooding was subsequently reported between mile markers 247 and 252 on Highway 70 with 3 feet of water and debris crossing the road. In addition to the highway flooding, six inches of water flowed into the Mescalero Community Center.
July 2025Flash FloodBent-The Mescalero EM reported burn scar flooding from the Seven Springs fire.
August 2022Flash FloodBent-Recent heavy rain and an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain brought debris flow down from the Soldier Canyon burn scar. The Emergency Manager reported Round Mountain Road was closed from 4 feet of mud and debris.

Every storm recorded in Otero County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Blazers Mill3.7 miles10
Mescalero4.4 miles10
Tularosa10.4 miles13
Carrizo11.7 miles10
Apache11.8 miles9
Salinas12.0 miles13
Alamorosa12.8 miles9
Silver Springs13.2 miles9

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on BentAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5726226The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 903754. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

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.