Elk, New Mexico

9 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Southwest Chaves census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88339. It lies near Bates Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Elk quadrangle.

Elk within Chaves County

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 9 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.

1954 USGS Carlsbad quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Carlsbad quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1963 USGS Elk quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1979 USGS Alamogordo quadrangle1:100000
2004 USGS Elk quadrangle1:24000

Fires near this place

19 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 19 fires within 5 miles of Elk between 1994 and 2014, burning about 516 acres in total. 9 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
Natural	9
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Equipment and vehicle use	4

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
10 August 2011	Natural	20 acres	Lincoln National Forest	MULE CANYON
1 July 2011	Natural	3.0 acres	Lincoln National Forest	MULE 1
1 July 2011	Natural	under an acre	Lincoln National Forest	MULE-2
30 June 1994	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	200 acres	New Mexico State Forestry Division	SHORT
3 June 2011	Natural	under an acre	Lincoln National Forest	SNAG
28 June 1994	Natural	250 acres	Lincoln National Forest	not named
27 June 2014	Equipment and vehicle use	16 acres	Mescalero Agency	PANTHER
9 May 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	New Mexico State Forestry Division	CLEVE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Dunken

Every fire recorded in Chaves County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Elk: 1 unknown. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone. 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
	State Hwy Pit No. 59-36-S	Stone	Unknown

Every working recorded in Chaves County

Storms near this place

13 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Elk in 13 storm reports between 1995 and 2025: 11 hail, 1 flood, 1 flash 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
July 2025	Flash Flood	Elk	-	Flash flooding over U.S. Highway 82 near Jay Powell Ranch with high flows out of banks along the Rio Penasco.
June 2019	Hail	Elk	-	Hail up to the size of ping pong balls fell near Elk.
April 2017	Hail	Elk	-	Report relayed via Twitter of hail up to the size of half dollars.
April 2017	Hail	Elk	-	Largest hail stones up to the size of golf balls.
April 2017	Hail	Elk	-	Nickel size hail.
April 2017	Hail	Elk	-	Report relayed via Twitter of hail up to the size of half dollars along U.S. Highway 82 at the Chaves and Otero county line.
May 2012	Hail	Elk	-	Penny size hail reported 4 miles east of Elk.
August 2009	Hail	Elk	-	Pea to penny size hail lasted 35 minutes. 1.80 inches of rain also fell in the same time frame.
July 2008	Flood	Elk	-	Heavy rain over the headwaters of the Rio Penasco and Agua Chituita Creek led to flooding of at least two ranches along the Rio Penasco river, south of U.S. route 82 in southwest Chaves county.
October 2015	Hail	Elk	-	no account filed
June 2011	Hail	Elk	-	no account filed
July 2009	Hail	Elk	-	no account filed
June 1995	Hail	Elk	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Chaves 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.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Dunken	11.4 miles	10
Diamante Mill	37.4 miles	10
Center Mill	37.5 miles	10
Highway Mill	38.9 miles	10
River Mill	39.1 miles	10
Missouri Plaza (historical)	39.9 miles	8
Blackdom (historical)	46.3 miles	8
Mountain View	51.0 miles	9

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 920594. 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.