El Rito, New Mexico
11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1918 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Rio Chama census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87530. It stands on Arroyo Seco. The Survey maps it on the El Rito quadrangle. 749 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,877 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresEl Rito fell from 808 to 749 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 | 808 | |
| 2020 | 749 | -59 (-7%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 11 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.
- 1918 USGS Abiquiu quadrangle1:125000
- 1953 USGS El Rito quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Aztec quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
- 1958 USGS Aztec quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Aztec quadrangle1:250000
- 1965 USGS Aztec quadrangle1:250000
- 1995 USGS El Rito quadrangle1:24000
Fires near this place
99 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 99 fires within 5 miles of El Rito between 1992 and 2020, burning about 225 acres in total. 33 started naturally. 7 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 |
|---|---|
| Natural | 33 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 33 |
| Debris and open burning | 15 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 7 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Carson National Forest | ROCKY ROAD |
| 4 September 2012 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Carson National Forest | 554 |
| 2 September 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | UNATTENDED CAMPFIRE5 |
| 2 September 2002 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | UNATTENDED CAMPFIRE4 |
| 2 September 1997 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Carson National Forest | SPRING |
| 19 September 1992 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | not named |
| 13 September 2019 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Carson National Forest | SOTANO |
| 9 August 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Carson National Forest | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 14 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of El Rito: 9 past producers, 2 producers, 2 prospects, 1 occurrence. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Uranium, Fluorine-Fluorite, Feldspar. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Rito Gold Deposits | Gold | Occurrence | ||
| Globe Mine | Mica, Feldspar | Past Producer | ||
| Rio Chama Placer Region | Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Cherokee Mine | Quartz | Past Producer | ||
| Joseph Mine | Fluorine-Fluorite | Past Producer | ||
| Los Compadres Claims | Quartz, Feldspar | Past Producer | ||
| Southwestern | Fluorine-Fluorite | Past Producer | ||
| Las Minas De Pedro | Uranium | Past Producer | ||
| Las Minas Jimmie | Uranium | Past Producer | ||
| Plaza Colorado Grant | Uranium | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
3 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names El Rito in 3 storm reports between 1998 and 2013: 1 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. The reports record 1 injury. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1999 | Lightning | El Rito | 1 hurt | A woman was burned slightly and windows were broken when lightning struck a home in El Rito. |
| July 2013 | Flash Flood | El Rito | $50,000 | Portion of highway 554 washed away in El Rito. A home along highway 554 was impacted by the flood waters with damage reported to the kitchen. Local print media reported that the skirt of a mobile home was washed away and a propane tank floated several hundred feet away from the home. |
| July 1998 | Hail | El Rito | - | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Las Placitas | 2.0 miles | 11 | |
| La Cueva (historical) | 7.5 miles | 12 | |
| Plaza Blanca | 7.8 miles | 13 | |
| Gallegos | 8.2 miles | 12 | |
| La Madera | 8.4 miles | 12 | |
| Ancones | 8.7 miles | 12 | |
| Duranes | 8.9 miles | 12 | |
| Tierra Azul | 10.0 miles | 14 |
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 El Rito | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q5352037 | 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 906090. 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.






