Magdalena, New Mexico
10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1954 and the latest in 1995. It stands in the Magdalena census division. It lies in ZIP code area 87825. It lies near Hop Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Magdalena quadrangle. 806 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,572 feet above sea level.
On record in Magdalena
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 12 of 15 shown
Aragon Houselisted 1982
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Depotlisted 1978
Bank of Magdalenalisted 1982
Gutierrez Houselisted 1982
Hall Hotellisted 1982
Hilton Houselisted 1982
Ilfeld Warehouselisted 1982
Lewellen Houselisted 1982
MacTavish Houselisted 1982
Magdaline Houselisted 1982
Main Street Commercial Buildinglisted 1982
Salome Storelisted 1982
Population over time
2 figuresMagdalena fell from 938 to 806 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 | 938 | |
| 2020 | 806 | -132 (-14%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
7 surveys from 10 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 Socorro quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1958 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000
- 1959 USGS Magdalena quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Socorro quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Magdalena quadrangle1:100000
- 1985 USGS Magdalena quadrangle1:24000
- 1995 USGS Magdalena quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Photographs
1 photograph, 1940Taken 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.
Lee, Russell, 1940. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
44 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 44 fires within 5 miles of Magdalena between 1992 and 2020, burning about 228 acres in total. 25 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 | 25 |
| Debris and open burning | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Fireworks | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 August 2018 | Natural | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | JORDON CANYON |
| 3 August 2003 | Natural | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | ELLIS |
| 25 August 1997 | Natural | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | MILL |
| 9 July 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Socorro Field Office | KELLY |
| 4 July 2007 | Fireworks | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | HWY 169 |
| 28 July 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | not named |
| 28 July 1993 | Natural | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | not named |
| 26 July 2006 | Natural | under an acre | Cibola National Forest | NORTH PEAK |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
10 of 57 shownRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 57 workings within 5 miles of Magdalena: 32 past producers, 18 prospects, 3 occurrences, 2 unknowns. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Zinc, Lead, Silver, Gold, Zinc, Silver, Lead, Copper, Lead, Zinc. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor | Zinc, Silver, Lead | Past Producer | ||
| Belle Claim Patented In 1882 | Lead, Silver, Copper, Gold, Zinc | Past Producer | 1957 | |
| Cavalier | Silver, Lead | Prospect | ||
| Cavern and Grand Ledge | Lead, Copper | Past Producer | ||
| Ellis Canyon Prospect | Silver, Copper, Lead | Past Producer | Replacement | |
| Germany | Lead, Copper, Zinc, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Gofor and Spire Mine | Gold, Copper, Silver | Occurrence | Chalcocite, Covellite, Pyrite | |
| Hardscrabble | Zinc, Lead, Copper, Silver | Past Producer | ||
| Heister | Lead, Barium-Barite | Occurrence | ||
| Jack Frost Mine | Lead, Silver, Zinc, Copper, Vanadium, Barium-Barite, Fluorine-Fluorite | Past Producer | 1925 |
Storms near this place
13 since 1998Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Magdalena in 13 storm reports between 1998 and 2025: 5 flash flood, 4 hail, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 funnel cloud. 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 2022 | Flash Flood | Magdalena | $50,000 | Forest thinning in the Magdalena Mountains resulted in a flash flooding event that made it easier for water to rush down an unnamed canyon. Floodwaters left behind a pile of debris 6 feet high and 20 feet wide that included steel fence posts and barbed wire, damaged trailed, and boulders that were 200 to 300 pounds. Damages are estimated. |
| August 2008 | Lightning | Magdalena | $30,000 | no account filed |
| July 2010 | Flash Flood | Magdalena | $10,000 | A large landslide washed out the dirt road leading to the Magdalena Ridge Observatory and Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research. |
| August 2012 | Flash Flood | Magdalena | $5,000 | Sixty feet of forest service road 101 washed out and remained closed for over twelve hours. Culverts along road washed out as well with estimates that water was four feet deep. Public works and local law enforcements ferried 40 people living in the canyon that work in Magdalena with large four wheel drive vehicles after the water receded. |
| September 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Magdalena | - | A trained spotter in Magdalena reported an estimated peak wind gust of about 60 mph from a severe thunderstorm. |
| July 2021 | Thunderstorm Wind | Magdalena | - | A trained spotter near Magdalena estimated 60 mph wind gusts from a severe thunderstorm. |
| August 2019 | Flash Flood | Magdalena | - | A large amount of boulders, rocks, mud, and debris damaged a section of Water Canyon Road. |
| August 2015 | Flash Flood | Magdalena | - | U.S. Highway 60 closed due to high water at mile marker 124. |
| May 2012 | Hail | Magdalena | - | Half dollar size hail reported in Magdalena. |
| May 2007 | Hail | Magdalena | - | Funnel cloud reported by EMT north of Alamo. |
| August 1998 | Funnel Cloud | Magdalena | - | A funnel cloud was spotted from the Langmuir Lightning Research Lab in the Magdalena mountains. |
| July 1998 | Hail | Magdalena | - | A brief hail storm damaged trees and broke several winds. |
| June 2003 | Hail | Magdalena | - | no account filed |
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.
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 Magdalena | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q603734 | 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 908353. 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.






