Mesilla, New Mexico
15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1891 and the latest in 1996. It stands in the Las Cruces census division. It lies in ZIP code area 88046. The Survey maps it on the Las Cruces quadrangle. 1,797 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,881 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMesilla fell from 2,196 to 1,797 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 | 2,196 | |
| 2020 | 1,797 | -399 (-18%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 15 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.
- 1891 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:125000
- 1893 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:125000, 4 printings
- 1941 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:62500, 2 printings
- 1943 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:62500
- 1955 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:250000
- 1978 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:24000
- 1982 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:100000
- 1996 USGS Las Cruces quadrangle1:24000
Photographs
7 photographs, 2021Taken 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.
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
7 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 7 fires within 5 miles of Mesilla between 1995 and 2020, burning about 101 acres in total. None 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 | 6 |
| Debris and open burning | 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 May 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Las Cruces Field Office | PICACHO |
| 2 May 1995 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 7.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | LEVEE |
| 18 May 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8.5 acres | Las Cruces Field Office | DEL RIO |
| 12 May 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 4.0 acres | New Mexico State Forestry Division | DAM FIRE |
| 3 April 2020 | Debris and open burning | 80 acres | Socorro District | FOG |
| 14 April 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.0 acres | Las Cruces Field Office | MESILLA |
| 14 April 2000 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Las Cruces Field Office | GLASS |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
9 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 9 workings within 5 miles of Mesilla: 6 past producers, 1 occurrence, 1 producer, 1 unknown. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Geothermal, Stone, Crushed/Broken. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Las Alturas Estates Wells | Geothermal | Unknown | ||
| Materials Pit 57-8-S | Stone, Crushed/Broken | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit 57-7-S | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit 58-36-F | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit 58-37-F | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit 58-38-F | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Materials Pit 59-94-F | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Past Producer | ||
| Unnamed Gravel Pit | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Producer | Gravel | |
| Unnamed Sand Prospect | Sand and Gravel, Construction | Occurrence |
Storms near this place
4 since 2006Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mesilla in 4 storm reports between 2006 and 2017: 3 hail, 1 flash flood. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2006 | Hail | Mesilla | $10,000,000 | no account filed |
| January 2017 | Hail | Mesilla | - | no account filed |
| October 2015 | Hail | Mesilla | - | no account filed |
| September 2006 | Flash Flood | Mesilla | - | no account filed |
Newspapers printed here
710 digitised pages1 paper published in this town, digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 91 issues, 710 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.
| Newspaper | Published |
|---|---|
| The Mesilla Valley Independent | 1877 to 1879 |
What the paper printed
1,324 wordsFront pages of the local paper, read from the Library of Congress scans: 2 issues all from 1877, 1,324 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.
| Issue | Paper | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1877-09-15 | The Mesilla Valley Independent | 338 words |
| 1877-11-17 | The Mesilla Valley Independent | 986 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 | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Four Points | 0.9 miles | 15 | |
| Mesilla Park | 1.9 miles | 15 | |
| San Pablo | 2.1 miles | 14 | |
| Tortugas | 2.5 miles | 15 | |
| University Park | 2.7 miles | 15 | |
| Las Cruces | 3.1 miles | 15 | |
| Fairacres | 3.4 miles | 15 | |
| Picacho | 4.6 miles | 15 |
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 Mesilla | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2059659 | 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 920645. 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.








