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Bluewater, New Mexico

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1883 and the latest in 1983. It stands in the Grants census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87005. It lies near Prop Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Bluewater quadrangle. 464 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,749 feet above sea level.

Bluewater within Cibola County

On record in Bluewater

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Bluewater fell from 628 to 464 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
2010628
2020464-164 (-26%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

10 surveys from 19 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

17 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 17 fires within 5 miles of Bluewater between 1994 and 2020, burning about 40 acres in total. 1 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
Recreation and ceremony4
Equipment and vehicle use4
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Arson/incendiarism2
Debris and open burning1
Other causes1
Natural1

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
28 July 2018Naturalunder an acreCibola National ForestSALITRE
19 July 1994Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreAlbuquerque District OfficeCANYON
13 July 1994Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCibola National Forestnot named
5 June 2017Equipment and vehicle use1.5 acresBernalillo DistrictMILE MARKER 74
29 June 2011Equipment and vehicle use1.5 acresCibola National ForestMILAN
13 June 2000Arson/incendiarismunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionFLUME WELL
10 June 2005Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCibola National ForestPOLE
28 April 2000Arson/incendiarismunder an acreNew Mexico State Forestry Divisionnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Cibola 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 Bluewater: 3 unknowns, 2 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Uranium, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Limestone, Dimension. 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
Materials Pit 67-29-SLimestone, DimensionUnknown
Unnamed QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Unnamed QuarrysStone, Crushed/BrokenUnknown
Bluewater Uranium MillUraniumProducer
Hope MineUraniumPast Producer
Section 31 MineUraniumPast Producer

Every working recorded in Cibola County

Storms near this place

6 since 1999

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bluewater in 6 storm reports between 1999 and 2013: 3 flash flood, 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 funnel cloud. 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 2008Flash FloodBluewater$40,000A road was washed out near Bluewater Lake State Park. Two homes were also flooded.
August 2008Flash FloodBluewater$3,000Willis road was washed out, and a home had flooding in its garage and porch.
October 2003Thunderstorm WindBluewater$2,000A tin roof was peeled off a home near Bluewater Lake by gusty winds from a small shower.
August 2013Funnel CloudBluewater-A funnel cloud was reported just north of Bluewater Lake near Mt. Taylor in the vicinity of two merging thunderstorm cells.
July 1999Flash FloodBluewater-About a dozen mobile homes were briefly flooded by 1-2 feet of water in the Plano Colorado development west of Bluewater.
August 2010HailBluewater-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Cibola 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
Toltec4.9 miles20
Golden Acres5.1 miles20
Broadview6.3 miles20
Stoneridge7.2 miles17
Milan7.7 miles20
Diener9.3 miles17
Grants10.3 miles20
San Rafael11.2 miles19

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 BluewaterAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q4960822The 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 923565. 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.