Lake Sumner, New Mexico
7 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the West De Baca census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88119. The Survey maps it on the Sumner Dam quadrangle. 72 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 4,308 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresLake Sumner fell from 143 to 72 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 | 143 | |
| 2020 | 72 | -71 (-50%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 7 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.
- 1954 USGS Fort Sumner quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Fort Sumner quadrangle1:250000
- 1966 USGS Alamogordo Dam quadrangle1:24000
- 1966 USGS Sumner Dam quadrangle1:24000
- 1984 USGS Santa Rosa quadrangle1:100000
Fires near this place
10 since 1994Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Lake Sumner between 1994 and 2020, burning about 3,234 acres in total. 2 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 |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 5 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 August 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | FALLON |
| 17 August 1994 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 1,920 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | WERTHIEM |
| 26 June 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | New Mexico State Forestry Division | ALAMOGORDO |
| 30 May 2011 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | 1,100 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | POWERLINE |
| 20 May 2006 | Natural | 5.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | not named |
| 20 May 2006 | Natural | 5.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | not named |
| 10 May 2014 | Equipment and vehicle use | 1.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | MCCOLLUM |
| 7 April 1999 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 100 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | STATE PARK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
1 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Lake Sumner: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sumner Lake Gypsum Deposits | Gypsum-Anhydrite | Occurrence | Gypsum |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salado | 3.0 miles | 7 | |
| Guadalupe | 5.9 miles | 7 | |
| Fort Sumner | 12.5 miles | 7 | |
| Agudo | 15.5 miles | 7 | |
| Evanola | 15.6 miles | 7 | |
| Ricardo (historical) | 16.0 miles | 7 | |
| La Lande | 17.6 miles | 7 | |
| Yeso | 17.7 miles | 6 |
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 Lake Sumner | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2615232 | 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 1852628. 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.




