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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.

El Rito within Rio Arriba County

Population over time

2 figures

El 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.

YearPeople Change
2010808
2020749-59 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 11 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

99 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural33
Recreation and ceremony33
Debris and open burning15
Arson/incendiarism7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Smoking3
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Equipment and vehicle use1
Other causes1

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
7 September 1997Naturalunder an acreCarson National ForestROCKY ROAD
4 September 2012Debris and open burningunder an acreCarson National Forest554
2 September 2002Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCarson National ForestUNATTENDED CAMPFIRE5
2 September 2002Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCarson National ForestUNATTENDED CAMPFIRE4
2 September 1997Natural1.0 acresCarson National ForestSPRING
19 September 1992Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCarson National Forestnot named
13 September 2019Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCarson National ForestSOTANO
9 August 1993Naturalunder an acreCarson National Forestnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Rio Arriba County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 14 shown

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
El Rito Gold DepositsGoldOccurrence
Globe MineMica, FeldsparPast Producer
Rio Chama Placer RegionCopperPast Producer
Cherokee MineQuartzPast Producer
Joseph MineFluorine-FluoritePast Producer
Los Compadres ClaimsQuartz, FeldsparPast Producer
SouthwesternFluorine-FluoritePast Producer
Las Minas De PedroUraniumPast Producer
Las Minas JimmieUraniumPast Producer
Plaza Colorado GrantUraniumPast Producer

Every working recorded in Rio Arriba County

Storms near this place

3 since 1998

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 1999LightningEl Rito1 hurtA woman was burned slightly and windows were broken when lightning struck a home in El Rito.
July 2013Flash FloodEl Rito$50,000Portion 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 1998HailEl Rito-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Rio Arriba 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
Las Placitas2.0 miles11
La Cueva (historical)7.5 miles12
Plaza Blanca7.8 miles13
Gallegos8.2 miles12
La Madera8.4 miles12
Ancones8.7 miles12
Duranes8.9 miles12
Tierra Azul10.0 miles14

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 RitoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5352037The 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.