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La Plata, New Mexico

18 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1889 and the latest in 1980. It stands in the Farmington census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87418. The Survey maps it on the La Plata quadrangle. 2,105 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 5,787 feet above sea level.

La Plata within San Juan County

On record in La Plata

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 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

La Plata grew from 612 to 2,105 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
2010612
20202,105+1,493 (+244%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 18 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

43 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 43 fires within 5 miles of La Plata between 1994 and 2018, burning about 176 acres in total. 26 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
Natural26
Debris and open burning10
Missing data/not specified/undetermined4
Equipment and vehicle use3

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
28 September 2012Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeCHERRY
14 September 2017Naturalunder an acreUte Mountain Ute AgencyCRAIG ARROYO
5 August 2002Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeTHOMAS CAN
29 August 1997Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeSTATELINE
22 August 2003Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeTHOMPSON
21 August 2012Natural1.0 acresFarmington Field OfficeCOAL STRIP
19 August 2004Naturalunder an acreFarmington Field OfficeBARKER
14 August 2018Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreFort Lewis-Mesa Fire Protection DistrictUNKNOWN

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in San Juan County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of La Plata: 2 unknowns, 1 producer. 1 still produces. 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
Kenneth Huggins PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducerSedimentary
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown

Every working recorded in San Juan County

Storms near this place

7 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names La Plata in 7 storm reports between 2000 and 2023: 4 flash flood, 2 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. 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
October 2014Flash FloodLa Plata$50,000Heavy rains caused a culvert to fail and travel was impacted along Highway 170 north of La Plata. Water flooded at least one home near the culvert.
September 2010Flash FloodLa Plata$10,000One home was flooded approximately 9 miles north of Farmington on Highway 170. Heavy rainfall, combined with insufficient drainage along the highway, resulted in water flowing across the roadway and into the house. High water marks suggest the water was around 10 inches deep, which destroyed carpet and other objects on the floor. Water continued to flow eastward along a one lane dirt road into a 5 acre, 12 foot deep pond, which was empty prior to the storm. The runoff filled the pond entirely.
August 2023Thunderstorm WindLa Plata$2,000A greenhouse was damaged from a strong gust front and likely microburst ahead of a line of storms moving east from Arizona.
July 2015Flash FloodLa Plata$1,000A foot of water flowed over U.S. 170 between mile markers 15 and 18. NMDOT had to clean mud, rocks, and debris off the roadway.
July 2021Flash FloodLa Plata-A strong thunderstorm near the Colorado and New Mexico border produced flash flooding along the La Plata River. No structures were damaged, but water did cover the roadway along New Mexico State Road 170 and nearby roadways such as Road 1788 south of La Plata. Water marks suggested that the flood waters covering the roadway were about 100 yards wide and 2 to 3 feet deep.
October 2000Tornado (F0)La Plata-no account filed
October 2000Tornado (F0)La Plata-no account filed

Every storm recorded in San Juan 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
Spencerville10.3 miles19
Flora Vista10.9 miles19
Cottonwood11.4 miles18
Aztec12.8 miles16
Center Point13.4 miles16
Farmington13.9 miles18
Inca14.2 miles16
Crouch Mesa14.6 miles17

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 La PlataAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q5964869The 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 890851. 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.