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Mescalero, New Mexico

10 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1950 and the latest in 2004. It stands in the Mescalero census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88340. It lies near South Fork Tularosa Canyon. The Survey maps it on the Mescalero quadrangle. 1,480 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 6,611 feet above sea level.

Mescalero within Otero County

On record in Mescalero

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

Surveyed buildings and structures 1 record

Population over time

3 figures

Mescalero grew from 1,233 to 1,480 between 2000 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
20001,233
20101,338+105 (+9%)
20201,480+142 (+11%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 10 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

1 photograph,

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.

Mescalero Indian Hospital, 318 Abalone Loop, Mescalero, Otero County, NM
Mescalero Indian Hospital, 318 Abalone Loop, Mescalero, Otero County, NM
Photographer not recorded. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

460 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 460 fires within 5 miles of Mescalero between 1992 and 2020, burning about 15,894 acres in total. 50 started naturally. 37 were 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/undetermined142
Debris and open burning82
Natural50
Recreation and ceremony45
Arson/incendiarism37
Misuse of fire by a minor26
Other causes23
Equipment and vehicle use22
Fireworks17
Smoking12
Power generation/transmission/distribution4

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
5 September 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMescalero AgencyWINDMILL
5 September 1992Smokingunder an acreMescalero AgencyEVANS
30 September 2011Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMescalero AgencyEAST CIRHUALAS
27 September 2005Naturalunder an acreMescalero AgencyELM STREET
17 September 1997Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMescalero AgencyBULLET
15 September 2003Naturalunder an acreMescalero AgencyCHINO WELL
13 September 2011Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreMescalero AgencyKOKOPELLI 2
8 August 1996Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMescalero AgencyCASTLE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Otero 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 Mescalero: 2 unknowns, 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Copper, Silver, Iron, 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
Materials PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionUnknown
Mescalero Magnetite-HematiteIronUnknown
Virginia MineCopper, SilverPast Producer1905, 1917

Every working recorded in Otero County

Storms near this place

12 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mescalero in 12 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 8 flash flood, 2 tornado, 2 hail. 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
July 2008Flash FloodMescalero$200,000Rainfall amounts of up to 2 inches fell on the South Tularosa Fire burn scar above Mescalero, resulting in excessive runoff. Logs washed on to Route 10, and much debris blocked residences. A fish hatchery was destroyed which killed all the fish.
July 2008Flash FloodMescalero$100,000Moisture associated with the remnants of Dolly resulted in very heavy rain over the South Tularosa Canyon Fire burn scar. Flood waters over-topped containment ponds leading to a widespread flash flood event. Parts of U.S. 70 were closed, the road to the Mescalero Fire Station was washed out, and numerous secondary roads were closed die to high water. Two dams failed at Mud Canyon. Several buildings were affected by the flood waters.
August 2009Flash FloodMescalero$5,000The Mescalero Fire Department reported water and mud covering IR-10 at the west end of a large burn scar. Bulldozers were dispatched to clear the road.
July 2025Flash FloodMescalero-Flash flooding was reported with 6 inches of water coming out of Soldier Canyon onto Highway 70 and into Mescalero.
July 2025Flash FloodMescalero-Indian Road 10 was closed due to flash flooding and necessary evacuations.
July 2023HailMescalero-One inch hail reported just northeast of Mescalero.
August 2022Flash FloodMescalero-Highway 70 was closed between mile markers 242 and 247. Heavy debris was across the road near mile marker 242. Rainfall amounts in excess of 1 inch in an hour were recorded near the burn scar.
July 2021Flash FloodMescalero-Flash flooding lead to closures along Highway 70 near mile marker 250 as well as NM-244 northeast of Mescalero. Torrential rainfall for an hour occurred with near zero visibility.
July 2015Tornado (EF0)Mescalero-A video of a tornado west of Ruidoso received a lot of social media attention. The tornado was located in front of Sierra Blanca Peak around 9000 ft in elevation. No damage or injuries were reported.
September 2006Flash FloodMescalero-Days of persistent rainfall led to water running over the spillway at Mescalero Dam which flooded Carrizo Creek.
June 2003Tornado (F0)Mescalero-The U.S. Forest Service reported a small tornado (landspout) just east of Whitetail which knocked down a few trees.
September 2016HailMescalero-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Otero 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
Blazers Mill0.7 miles10
Bent4.4 miles10
Silver Springs9.1 miles9
Carrizo9.4 miles10
Whitetail12.6 miles8
Apache13.4 miles9
Cloudcroft13.9 miles11
Tularosa14.2 miles13

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 MescaleroAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q3306102The 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 923626. 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.