Cliff, New Mexico
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1994. It stands in the Tyrone census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88028. It stands on Bear Creek. The Survey maps it on the Cliff quadrangle. 284 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,498 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresCliff fell from 293 to 284 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.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 293 | |
| 2020 | 284 | -9 (-3%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 10 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.
- 1954 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Cliff quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:250000
- 1990 USGS Cliff quadrangle1:24000
- 1994 USGS Silver City quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
7 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Cliff between 1993 and 2020, burning about 92 acres in total. 2 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 | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 August 1993 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 20 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | SHIEDS |
| 26 July 2015 | Natural | 1.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | IRON BRIDGE |
| 25 June 2020 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Socorro District | SYCAMORE |
| 12 June 1994 | Natural | 40 acres | Las Cruces Field Office | SYCAMORE |
| 29 April 2000 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | RIVER |
| 30 March 1996 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | OLD COTTONWD |
| 1 March 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 30 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | MESA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
5 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Cliff: 5 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Manganese, 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.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Materials Pit 64-12-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Black Tower | Manganese | Past Producer | 1954 | |
| Black Tower Claim | Manganese | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Hillside | Manganese | Past Producer | Vein | |
| Hillside | Manganese | Past Producer | 1952 |
Storms near this place
7 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Cliff in 7 storm reports between 2007 and 2022: 5 flash flood, 1 hail, 1 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.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 2007 | Flash Flood | Cliff | $20,000 | Flood waters from an upstream persistent thunderstorm reached Cliff and affected the high school and some residences. Evacuations were considered but the water level receded in time. Radar estimates, which were assumed to be accurate considering the deep moist layer, were up to 4 inches under the source storm. |
| September 2014 | Flash Flood | Cliff | $5,000 | Grant County 911 reported a flash flood near Bear Creek off of Highway 211. A Chevrolet Prism was pushed off the road and into the creek on Highway 211. The woman was able to escape her vehicle and get to safety, but the vehicle was found a half mile down from the highway in a wash and was totaled. |
| August 2022 | Flood | Cliff | - | A bridge collapsed on US 180 between Silver City and Cliff due to flooding on a creek that feeds the Gila River. It took several days to repair the bridge. In addition one structure near the river was washed off it's foundation. |
| September 2021 | Flash Flood | Cliff | - | Twitter report showed flash flooding on Bill Evans Road south of Gila, NM. |
| July 2013 | Flash Flood | Cliff | - | A Forest Service employee reported water flowing over the guard rails near the intersection of U.S. 180 and Highway 211. |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Cliff | - | A truck was swept into creek near Highway 180 and mile marker 82. |
| October 2015 | Hail | Cliff | - | no account filed |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gila | 1.8 miles | 10 | |
| Riverside | 2.3 miles | 10 | |
| Buckhorn | 7.3 miles | 13 | |
| Mangas Springs | 9.8 miles | 11 | |
| Telegraph (historical) | 12.7 miles | 11 | |
| Alhambra (historical) | 17.5 miles | 12 | |
| Black Hawk (historical) | 18.3 miles | 12 | |
| East Camp (historical) | 18.8 miles | 10 |
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 Cliff | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5132516 | 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 898744. 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.





