BlockBefore

Fort Sumner, New Mexico

7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the East De Baca census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88119. It stands on Truchas Creek. The Survey maps it on the Fort Sumner East quadrangle. 889 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,032 feet above sea level.

Fort Sumner within De Baca County

On record in Fort Sumner

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 4 records

Population over time

2 figures

Fort Sumner fell from 1,031 to 889 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
20101,031
2020889-142 (-14%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

4 surveys from 7 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.

Photographs

8 of 9 photographs shown, 1935 to 1943

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Going across the sheep and cattle country along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Going across the sheep and cattle country along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Passing through a small town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Passing through a small town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Landscape along the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1935. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Passing through a small town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner (vicinity), New Mexico. Passing through a small town on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in the Pecos River Valley enroute to Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Train about to cross Pecos River along the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad between Clovis and Vaughn, New Mexico
Delano, Jack, 1943. Library of Congress

Every photograph of De Baca County

Fires near this place

28 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 28 fires within 5 miles of Fort Sumner between 1993 and 2020, burning about 4,536 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 1 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/undetermined11
Natural7
Debris and open burning3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Smoking1
Arson/incendiarism1

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
15 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresNew Mexico State Forestry Divisionnot named
13 July 2011Natural3.0 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionCACTUS
11 July 2011Natural2.0 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionRED MILL
3 June 2006Natural25 acresNew Mexico State Forestry Divisionnot named
27 June 1994Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.5 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionJACOB
25 June 2016Natural4.0 acresCapitan DistrictWILTON-VAUGHN
22 June 2018Railroad operations and maintenance1.0 acresCapitan DistrictBLACK BRIDGE
6 May 2016Natural9.0 acresLas Vegas DistrictJUAN DIOS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in De Baca County

Mines and quarries near this place

10 of 15 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 15 workings within 5 miles of Fort Sumner: 13 past producers, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Cortez PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Fort Sumner PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer
Steele PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer1992
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer

Every working recorded in De Baca County

Storms near this place

2 since 1993

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Fort Sumner in 2 storm reports in 1993: 2 tornado. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 1993Tornado (F1)Fort Sumner$50,000A tornado moved across Sumner Lake, hitting the Alamo Boat Club Deck. The tornado damaged and flipped over two pontoon boats, stripped the roof from one cabin, damaged roofs of five other cabins and broke several power poles and television antennas.
May 1993Tornado (F0)Fort Sumner-A tornado touched down briefly in open country between Fort Sumner and Vaughn.

Every storm recorded in De Baca County

Newspapers printed here

334 digitised pages

1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 52 issues, 334 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.

NewspaperPublished
The Fort Sumner Review190? to 1947

What the paper printed

3,783 words

Front pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 2 issues spread across its run from 1909 to 1911, 3,783 words in total. Each is reproduced on its own page, exactly as the recogniser returned it.

These pages read less well than anything else here, and the number is worth stating: about three words in four come through cleanly, against nine in ten for the building records. An 1896 broadsheet sets eight-point type in seven columns on microfilm, which is the hardest thing in this archive to read by machine. We tested our own recognisers against the Library's and they were not better, so the Library's text is what appears, with the wholly unreadable columns removed. Read it as a guide to what the paper covered, and follow the link to the scan before quoting anything.

IssuePaper Length
1909-07-17The Fort Sumner Review690 words
1911-12-16The Fort Sumner Review3,093 words

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
Agudo5.5 miles7
La Lande6.1 miles7
Ricardo (historical)9.3 miles7
Guadalupe11.0 miles7
Salado11.9 miles7
Lake Sumner12.5 miles7
Taiban12.7 miles7
Evanola13.7 miles7

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 Fort SumnerAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2683042The 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 923600. 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.