Chilili, New Mexico
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1917 and the latest in 1991. It stands in the East Bernalillo census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87059. It lies near CaƱon de Chilili. The Survey maps it on the Chilili quadrangle. 126 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,814 feet above sea level.
Population over time
3 figuresChilili fell from 137 to 126 between 2000 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 137 | |
| 2010 | 137 | 0 (0%) |
| 2020 | 126 | -11 (-8%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 13 printed sheetsMatched 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.
- 1917 USGS Estancia quadrangle1:125000
- 1954 USGS Chilili quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
- 1954 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Estancia quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Belen quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1991 USGS Chilili quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
31 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 31 fires within 5 miles of Chilili between 1993 and 2019, burning about 34 acres in total. 14 started naturally. None was 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 | 16 |
| Natural | 14 |
| Other causes | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 August 2003 | Natural | 2.5 acres | Cibola National Forest | GOTERA |
| 6 August 2000 | Natural | 1.5 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | FRED |
| 14 August 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | ESCOBOSA |
| 14 August 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.8 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | FLOYD |
| 4 July 2001 | Natural | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | not named |
| 4 July 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | MARTINEZ |
| 3 July 2012 | Natural | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | CANYONCITO FIRE |
| 21 July 2019 | Natural | under an acre | Bernalillo District | 20-60230102X |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Chilili: 1 producer. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Fire Clay (Refractory). 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown Name Fire-Clay Pit | Fire Clay (Refractory) | Producer | Sedimentary |
Storms near this place
4 since 2016Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Chilili in 4 storm reports between 2016 and 2025: 2 flash flood, 1 tornado, 1 debris flow. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2025 | Debris Flow | Chilili | $25,000 | Debris flows were reported running off the South Fork burn scar in Ruidoso along Main Road at Bridge 2, over the roadway at Cedar Creek Dr. and Half Circle Dr., and from a mudslide in the Upper Canyon area from N. Loop Dr. to McDaniel Drive. There were no reports of injuries or fatalities. Damage is an estimate. |
| August 2016 | Flash Flood | Chilili | - | Video showed a torrent of water raging through the arroyo flowing up to the base of the highway 337 bridge at Chilili. Chopper footage also showed cattle and a rancher fleeing the flood wave upstream. |
| July 2016 | Tornado (EF0) | Chilili | - | Landspout spotted near Chilili. |
| July 2016 | Flash Flood | Chilili | - | Video footage showed torrent of water flowing down arroyo through Chilili up to base of the highway 337 bridge. Water was flowing out of bank into the yard of a nearby residence but no damage was sustained. Sandbags worked great to block the water from the home. |
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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Chilili | 2.2 miles | 13 | |
| Augustine | 3.9 miles | 13 | |
| Escabosa | 3.9 miles | 12 | |
| Manzano Springs | 5.4 miles | 13 | |
| Miera | 6.1 miles | 12 | |
| Yrisarri | 6.2 miles | 12 | |
| Ponderosa Pine | 7.7 miles | 12 | |
| Juan Tomas | 10.1 miles | 18 |
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 Chilili | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2929446 | The 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 928710. 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.







