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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.

Mesilla within Doña Ana County

Population over time

2 figures

Mesilla 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.

YearPeople Change
20102,196
20201,797-399 (-18%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 15 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

7 photographs, 2021

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.

A religious icon and adjacent art in the sanctuary of the Basilica of San Albino on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
A religious icon and adjacent art in the sanctuary of the Basilica of San Albino on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
The Basilica of San Albino on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
The Basilica of San Albino on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
A pottery shop just off the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
A pottery shop just off the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Chiles hang on the wall of the La Posta Restaurant on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Chiles hang on the wall of the La Posta Restaurant on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
The Heart of the Desert nut and wine shop in the old Mesilla Valley Store on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
The Heart of the Desert nut and wine shop in the old Mesilla Valley Store on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
Art on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico, that includes the flags of the United States and Mexico, and the sunburst symbol of the New Mexico flag
Art on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico, that includes the flags of the United States and Mexico, and the sunburst symbol of the New Mexico flag
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress
A religious icon and adjacent art in the sanctuary of the Basilica of San Albino on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
A religious icon and adjacent art in the sanctuary of the Basilica of San Albino on the plaza of Mesilla (locally called Old Mesilla), a historic town adjacent to Las Cruces, the hub city of southern New Mexico
Highsmith, Carol M, 2021. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

7 since 1995

Regional 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/undetermined6
Debris and open burning1

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
23 May 2000Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreLas Cruces Field OfficePICACHO
2 May 1995Missing data/not specified/undetermined7.0 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionLEVEE
18 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined8.5 acresLas Cruces Field OfficeDEL RIO
12 May 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined4.0 acresNew Mexico State Forestry DivisionDAM FIRE
3 April 2020Debris and open burning80 acresSocorro DistrictFOG
14 April 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresLas Cruces Field OfficeMESILLA
14 April 2000Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreLas Cruces Field OfficeGLASS

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Doña Ana County

Mines and quarries near this place

9 within 5 miles

Regional 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 SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Las Alturas Estates WellsGeothermalUnknown
Materials Pit 57-8-SStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Materials Pit 57-7-SSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Materials Pit 58-36-FSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Materials Pit 58-37-FSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Materials Pit 58-38-FSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Materials Pit 59-94-FSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Unnamed Gravel PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducerGravel
Unnamed Sand ProspectSand and Gravel, ConstructionOccurrence

Storms near this place

4 since 2006

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
September 2006HailMesilla$10,000,000no account filed
January 2017HailMesilla-no account filed
October 2015HailMesilla-no account filed
September 2006Flash FloodMesilla-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Doña Ana County

Newspapers printed here

710 digitised pages

1 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.

NewspaperPublished
The Mesilla Valley Independent1877 to 1879

What the paper printed

1,324 words

Front 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.

IssuePaper Length
1877-09-15The Mesilla Valley Independent338 words
1877-11-17The Mesilla Valley Independent986 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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Four Points0.9 miles15
Mesilla Park1.9 miles15
San Pablo2.1 miles14
Tortugas2.5 miles15
University Park2.7 miles15
Las Cruces3.1 miles15
Fairacres3.4 miles15
Picacho4.6 miles15

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 MesillaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2059659The 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.